This post was updated Oct. 9 at 10:46 p.m.
A UCLA alumnus was taken into Israeli military custody while traveling on a ship attempting to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Freelance journalist Emily Wilder was aboard The Conscience – a ship operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition – to report on the organization’s humanitarian aid missions to Gaza, said Mari Cohen, the associate editor at Jewish Currents magazine, a news outlet that covers “culture on the Jewish left,” according to its website. Cohen added that Wilder had approached Jewish Currents with the idea of joining the flotilla to support journalists in Gaza amid the Israeli military’s ban on international reporters entering the area independently.
Wilder attended a master’s of legal studies program at the UCLA School of Law from 2022-23. She previously graduated from Stanford University, where she was a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, according to the Stanford Daily.
The flotillas have attempted to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza – where Israeli military forces have killed over 67,000 people since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel’s military campaign followed Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, in which the Palestinian political party and militant group killed 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire that would end the war and free Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, according to NPR.
The FFC, a group that organizes maritime missions to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, said in a press release early Wednesday that the Israeli military intercepted vessels carrying journalists, doctors and activists. Cohen said she believes the vessel carrying Wilder had been transferred to an Israeli port with a legal team supporting the passengers – eight of whom are United States nationals – as of 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Cohen said she lost all communication with Wilder following the vessel’s interception. Cohen, who had access to a live feed of the mission, added that the boat had entered a zone in international waters where other humanitarian aid flotillas had previously been intercepted.
“We could see suddenly that the people on the boat were heading onto the deck and putting on life jackets and putting their hands up and preparing,” she said. “We could tell that interception was coming, and then the feed cut off.”
The consulate general of Israel in Los Angeles did not respond in time to multiple requests for comment about Wilder’s detention.
The incident follows the Israeli military’s detainment of over 400 activists – including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg – on a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza last week, according to the New York Times.
Cohen said she believes the interception was a “violation of international law,” adding that the mission was nonviolent. She said leadership and employees from Jewish Currents have been calling elected officials and the U.S. Department of State – and that the magazine has encouraged its audience to call Wilder’s representatives and senators to advocate for her release.
U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, whose district includes multiple LA neighborhoods, said in a Wednesday press release that he wrote a letter asking the U.S. State Department to update him on efforts made to secure Wilder’s “safe treatment and immediate release.”
A UC spokesperson declined to comment on Wilder being taken into Israeli military custody.
“Hopefully when Emily is released, we’ll be able to publish more of her reporting and her writing about her experience,” Cohen said. “We’re supporting the brave decision that she made to report on this, and we also know that she would want it not to just be about her but rather the conditions that she’s covering.”
