Global Sumud Flotilla sets sail for Gaza tomorrow

The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), which was announced last month, will set sail for Gaza from Spain tomorrow.

GSF was formed by four anti-genocide groups – the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which has sent a number of vessels to Gaza that have been illegally attacked, in one case bombed, and its crews briefly held hostage (and some beaten); the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine; the Maghreb Sumud Convoy and the Southeast Asian Nusantara Sumud Initiative – to break Israel’s starvation blockade on Gaza and deliver urgent humanitarian aid

The flotilla consists of more than fifty small civilian vessels crewed by volunteers – activists, medics, trade unionists and parliamentarians from around forty countries.

As well as aiming to deliver more aid than a single vessel could carry, the size of the flotilla is also intended to act as a deterrent to Israel’s criminal attacks on the FFC’s earlier vessels – the Conscience, the Madleen and the Handala, which were attacked by Israeli drones and stormed in international waters by occupation troops.

The GSF coalition is clear that its mission is entirely legal under international maritime law. Civilian vessels carrying aid in international waters. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea the governments of the crew members and of the vessels’ flags have an absolute duty under international law to protect them, yet the UK regime of Keir Starmer has done precisely nothing to combat Israel’s piracy and violence, despite attacked vessels both carrying UK citizens and being UK-registered and flagged.

The GSF’s organisers said:

Our boats carry more than aid. They carry a message: the siege must end. The greater danger lies not in confronting Israel at sea, but in allowing genocide to continue with impunity.

Israel’s attempts to sabotage the humanitarian vessels attempting to reach Gaza have not just consisted of direct military attacks. Food and water supplies on vessels in port have been poisoned and electronic jamming has been used to interfere with navigation and the ability of supporters to follow vessels’ progress. Awareness and solidarity with the crews of all flotillas are vital to inhibit Israeli aggression and lawlessness and to pressure western governments to fulfil their obligations toward crews and against Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza.

Please remember to support Skwawkbox if you can, to help ensure it can keep running. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (Skwawkbox will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount as it has to be entered by us). Alternatively, if you prefer to make a one-off or recurring donation by simple card payment, please use the form below:

Thanks for your solidarity so Skwawkbox can keep doing its job of inconveniencing the right and helping to build the left!

If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so, but please include the donor information above – see here for more.