Meet Rudy Martinez, Flotilla Participant

His name is Rudy Martinez (he also goes by Rosa Martinez), and he admits that the Gaza flotilla was never intended to bring humanitarian aid to the Strip. It was a publicity stunt, undertaken to redirect the world’s attention to the “genocide” in Gaza that, the flotillistas believed, needed to have a spotlight shown on it. More on Martinez’ admission can be found here: “Gaza flotilla activist: Engaging with IDF was main goal, not humanitarian aid,” by Michael Starr, Jerusalem Post, May 25, 2026:

A Gaza flotilla participant and well-known New York City anti-Israel activist said on Sunday that the primary objective of the blockade run on Gaza last week was not to deliver humanitarian aid, but to confront the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and draw attention to the Palestinian cause.

In a Palestinian Youth Movement NYC Instagram video, Adalah co-vessel organizer Rosa Martinez said that the goals of the April and May flotillas had been misrepresented in the media as “some sort of humanitarian aid mission.”

“I think that’s kind of flattening what it is that we’re doing. Yes, there is aid. The aid that we have isn’t sufficient to the structural issues in a post ‘ceasefire’ Gaza,” said Martinez, who is also known by the forename Rudy, said upon his return to the United States. “For me, as someone who, I think at this juncture in history, is very wedded to direct action, I feel like directly confronting the Israeli occupation forces [IDF] at sea as we try to break this 20-year genocidal siege… is a historic responsibility.”

What IDF “occupation,” and what “20-year genocidal siege” does he mean? For the past 21 years, there has not been a single Israeli in Gaza to “occupy” the Strip. And what “genocide” is he talking about? It is Hamas that over the past 20 years has been launching missiles and rockets at Israeli villages and cites, never at military targets; it is Hamas that carried out the atrocities — the gang rapes, tortures, mutilations, and murders of 1,200 Israelis, and the kidnapping of 251 others
— on Oct. 7, 2023, that led the IDF to invade Gaza in order to hunt down the murderers and to ensure that Hamas could never threaten Israelis again. As for this idiotic charge of “genocide,” that crime requires “intent.” There has never been an intent by the IDF to destroy the people of Gaza. Instead, the IDF has made tremendous efforts to warn civilians away from places and buildings about to be targeted. It has done this by dropping millions of leaflets, sending millions of text messages, and making millions of robocalls. No wonder that West Point professor John Spencer, an expert in urban warfare, has said that “Israel has done more and implemented more measures to prevent civilian harm than any military in the history of urban warfare.” Israel has facilitated the entry of more than 1.6 million tons of food and medical supplies into Gaza. The IDF has brought Gazans requiring special medical treatment from the Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Israel, after which they are driven to the Ramon Airport in southern Israel or Ben Gurion Airport for flights. These patients have so far been flown to hospitals in the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, the United States, Canada, and European Union nations, including Italy, Belgium, Norway, and Romania.

Martinez continued that for him the priorities of the activist mission were “engaging with the IOF [“Israel Occupation Forces”] directly, putting the spotlight back on Gaza, ’cause it has fallen off the headlines.”dlines.”

The flotilla was never about bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza but, rather, he admits, was only undertaken in order to “put the spotlight back on Gaza, “’cause it has fallen off the headlines.” In fact, the Gaza flotilla story did not remain in the headlines; it was the insect of an hour. The Iran deal-or-no-deal has now taken all the bandwidth.

Martinez, who was arrested on May 18 when his vessel was interdicted by Israeli naval forces along with 54 other Global Sumud Flotilla ships, said that his four-day detainment was a “waking nightmare,” but argued that it was a fraction of what Palestinians endured.

What “waking nightmare” was that? Were the accommodations provided by Israel not up to snuff? Or does Martinez want us to believe that those terrible Israelis withheld food, or beat him mercilessly, or had a dog rape him? Sorry, no can do.

What more does anyone need to know about Rudy, or is it Rosa, Martinez? He admits that the flotilla in which he took part was intended not to bring humanitarian aid to its people, but to put the media’s spotlight back on Gaza. He wants us to believe that Gaza has been under Israeli “occupation” for the past 20 years, even though every last Israeli was pulled out of Gaza in 2005, and the IDF only returned to the Strip in response to the attacks committed on Oct. 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists. Israel has not, pace Martinez, committed “genocide” in Gaza, but made tremendous efforts to minimize civilian casualties. Martinez believes that Hamas’ orgy of rape, torture, mutilation, and murder on Oct. 7 was “one of the greatest days in the history of decolonization.”

Martinez is about to meet his comeuppance in court. The case of the CUNY-8 is still moving toward trial. Martinez and his seven fellow defendants are certain to be convicted, and to face several years of prison for the millions of dollars’ worth of destruction they caused to a building on the Columbia campus. Martinez says he “regrets nothing,” but let him be asked again, once he’s been behind bars for a stretch, if he still thinks that way.