A St. Louis activist who was detained by Israel while trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza on a boat is now free.
The ship Handala departed Gallipoli, Italy, for Gaza on July 20. Among its roughly 20 passengers was Bob Suberi. The 77-year-old former restaurant owner and Affton resident joined an activist group’s attempt to bring aid to Gaza and “to challenge Israel’s illegal and inhumane blockade of the Palestinian people.”
On Saturday, Suberi’s wife, Barbara, was watching a livestream from the ship as the Israeli Navy intercepted the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s ship and arrested him and other pro-Palestinian activists.
“I just watched him with his hands up,” she said Monday. “We knew it was going to happen. They knew it was going to happen.”
Barbara Suberi said Bob had spent about 24 hours in Israeli custody before being released Sunday night. He is a dual citizen of Israel and the United States.
In a Tuesday interview, Bob Suberi confirmed his wife’s account of his release. He told St. Louis Public Radio that Israeli officials first asked him and a fellow dual citizen also released to sign a document “stating that we would not enter Gaza.” He refused.
“We said, ‘No, you know it's not illegal for us to go to Gaza. You know your blockade is illegal. They just said, ‘OK, we're going to let you out on bail.’”
Suberi said he doesn’t know what happened to the humanitarian aid aboard the Handala. Most of the ship’s activists are reported to still be in custody awaiting deportation.
In a brief biography published on the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s website, Bob Suberi described growing up in a Jewish community and attending Zionist summer camps that emphasized Israel’s role in his heritage. Using the Arabic word for “catastrophe” to refer to Israel’s war of independence, he described himself as a “first-generation Jewish American born in Los Angeles in 1948 to parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Palestine in 1938/39, prior to the Nakba.”
It wasn’t until 2019, he said, that a trip to a Palestinian village in the West Bank changed his perspective. He’s been involved in pro-Palestinian activism ever since.
“Our mission was to break the blockade,” he said Tuesday. “The amount of humanitarian aid we were carrying was a drop in the ocean compared to what's required.”
“We will continue our missions until we are successful,” he added. “We are not going to stop.”
To hear the full conversation with Bob and Barbara Suberi, including Bob Suberi’s reaction to the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen by an Israeli settler on Monday, listen to “St. Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The production intern is Darrious Varner. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
