JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Organizers of an international flotilla of boats carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on Thursday announced plans for another mission with more than 100 boats in March.
Campaigners, who organized a similar aid flotilla last year, described the upcoming mission as the biggest civilian-led mobilization against Israel's actions in Gaza. They called on the international community to prevent Israeli forces from intercepting the operation.
The announcement was made at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa and speakers included Mandla Mandela, grandson of the late former South African president.
The United Nations said that hundreds of thousands of pallets of humanitarian supplies have been offloaded and collected at various crossings into Gaza since a fragile ceasefire was announced in October.
But Israel has suspended more than two dozen humanitarian organizations from operating in the Gaza Strip for failing to comply with new registration rules, and the territory's population of over 2 million Palestinians still face a humanitarian crisis.
Mandela was part of the flotilla that embarked on a mission to Gaza last year and was detained along with other activists when their boat was intercepted by Israeli forces before they could reach Gaza shores.
According to organizers, more than 1,000 activists including medical doctors, war crimes investigators and engineers will form part of the new flotilla. It will be supported by a land convoy that is expected to attract thousands more activists across countries including Tunisia and Egypt.
The boats are expected to sail from Spain, Tunisia and Italy toward Gaza.
“This time around we expect hundreds and thousands to sign up and to mobilize entry through Egypt, through Lebanon, through Jordan and every other border that is feasible for us to get into occupied Palestine and to Gaza," Mandela said. “We want to mobilize the entire global community to join forces with us."
Activists said they were aware that they might be confronted by Israeli forces but that they were protected by international law.
“The International Court of Justice in the provisional ruling in the case opened by South Africa against the genocide state of Israel, states very clearly that Israel or any other nation are prohibited to hinder any type of humanitarian mission on the way to Gaza," said Thiago Avila, a Brazilian activist who is part of the steering committee.
Mandela said they had chosen to host the briefing at the Nelson Mandela Foundation to highlight Nelson Mandela's support for the Palestinian cause. They also welcomed the country's decision to expel Israel's deputy ambassador to South Africa.
Last year's mission mobilized about 50 vessels and 500 activists. Organizers said Israeli vessels approached the boats while they sailed in international waters, spraying some with water canons.
An estimated 443 participants were detained, including Mandela, activist Greta Thunberg and European Parliament member Rima Hassan.
South African member of parliament and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela joins a press conference held by the Global Sumud Flotilla about its upcoming Spring 2026 mission Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
South African member of parliament and Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla Mandela joins a press conference held by the Global Sumud Flotilla about its upcoming Spring 2026 mission Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, South Africa. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.
The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.
Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.
“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.
Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.
“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.
In 2023 and early 2024, the state decided that the system did require going to court or showing proof of a pardon, not just a paperwork process, and that gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.
Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.
Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.
“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”
Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”
For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.
Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.
The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.
Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.
Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.
Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.
Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.
In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.
However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
