As the onset of the genocide in Gaza nears its two-year anniversary, a group of several dozen boats or possibly more are set to attempt by sea to break Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip in the coming weeks. Dubbed the Global Sumud Flotilla (sumud means “steadfast” in Arabic), it is the latest—and largest—civilian attempt to break the blockade by sea—a blockade that Israel has maintained for eighteen years.
The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) describes itself as a coalition of organizers, humanitarians, doctors, artists, clergy, lawyers, and seafarers who “believe in human dignity and the power of nonviolent action.” Activists have called upon the Israeli government to allow the flotilla, which will be carrying “food, medicine, and essential supplies,” through the naval blockade.
“Palestinian people don't need to be saved. They can save themselves. We are just listening to what they ask, and they are asking for their rights to be respected: the right to live, the right to eat, the right to move, the right to be free, the right to be free in dignity,” Maria Elena Delia, an Italian member of the GSF’s steering committee, says in an August press release from the group.
“We want to pressure our governments [and] we want to pressure the perpetrators of this genocide.” —Thiago Ávila
The flotilla is set to launch dozens of civilian boats from Barcelona, Spain, on August 31, and dozens more from Tunis, Tunisia, and Sicily, Italy, on September 4, with thousands of participants from more than forty countries. Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist on the steering committee of the GSF, tells The Progressive that the GSF is attempting to mobilize people around the globe against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and the open-air prison conditions that Israel has imposed on the enclave since 2007.
“We want to pressure our governments [and] we want to pressure the perpetrators of this genocide,” Ávila says.
The GSF coalition includes organizers and participants of previous efforts to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza earlier this year, including the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla and the Global Movement to Gaza, as well as the Sumud Nusantara. According to a third-party security analysis of the Global Sumud Flotilla by a private intelligence firm, the prime minister of Malaysia is directly backing the GSF effort. The report predicts that because of its size, the GSF will “present logistical challenges for the Israeli navy.” “A high number of vessels,” the analysis states, “will stretch Israeli interception capabilities, leading to the possible use of drones to disable ships from a distance. Such actions carry risks, including injury, death, or leaving crews stranded at sea on disabled vessels.”
Despite the risk of detainment and violence by Israeli forces, the activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla say they see no alternative other than taking this action.
“Silence today is complicity in genocide,” says Saif Abukeshek, a Palestinian activist based in Barcelona, in a GSF press release. “Whoever does not take any active and direct action to contribute to the end of the siege, the end of the genocide, and the path to freedom, is complicit in all these crimes.”
Since 2010, a group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has led multiple efforts to breach the blockade by sea. The organization is not officially part of the GSF coalition, though Ávila, who is also on the steering committee of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, tells The Progressive that its members support the GSF’s efforts. In June, Ávila was part of an attempt to break the blockade aboard the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Madleen vessel, which was attacked by the Israeli military in international waters—a violation of both international law governing civilian navigation and the International Court of Justice’s order requiring that humanitarian aid be allowed into Gaza.
Ávila was detained by the Israeli military alongside other participants of the mission, including world-renowned climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is also a member of the GSF steering committee and intends to set sail with this new flotilla.
“It was quite a lot of learning that we had from the Madleen experience,” says Ávila. “Israel is not afraid of breaking international laws. [The Madleen] showed how cruel they can be, but it also showed how much we can inspire people when we mobilize.”
Another ship—the Handala—attempted to reach Gaza in July before the Israeli military attacked the vessel and detained its passengers. Chris Smalls, former president of the Amazon Labor Union was aboard the Handala, along with two political figures from La France Insoumise, a left political party with seats in the European Parliament, and nearly two dozen other activists. Smalls has since reported being choked and physically assaulted by Israeli police officers during his detainment.
In 2010, an international flotilla of eight ships, including the Mavi Marmara, was raided by the Israeli military, resulting in the deaths of nine activists. A U.N. Human Rights Council report found that “the circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary, and summary execution” by the Israeli military.
Ávila says the GSF is conscious of its place in a broader movement.
“We are part of this global uprising that has the boat missions but also has the demonstrations and the encampments,” Ávila says. “The world is fed up with the genocide.”
After nearly two years of the current genocide—and seventy-seven years of a system of apartheid and ethnic cleansing—perhaps this will be an effort that finally bears some fruit for Palestinians.