False start for the Global Sumud Flotilla due to weather; all eyes on Tel Aviv’s response

Brussels –The Global Sumud Flotilla had to turn back a few hours after setting sail. The massive mobilization of international civil society to bring humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip by sea left yesterday from several ports for the besieged Palestinian exclave. It is expected to arrive off the Gaza coast in a couple of weeks and aims to maintain high media attention to put pressure on Israel, which will most likely prevent the boats from docking.

The first part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet of dozens of small to medium-sized ships put in the water by the adherents of what could be the most significant transnational mobilization of recent history, departed yesterday (31 August) but had to return to port a few hours later due to adverse weather conditions. It is unclear when it will be able to return to sea. 

Some 20 ships set sail from Barcelona, where over 5,000 people greeted the approximately 300 sailors: not only sailors but also activists, journalists, lawyers, doctors, public figures, and members of civil society. On the boats, tons of humanitarian aid for the Palestinians of the Strip, trapped by more than 18 years of illegal siege by the Jewish State, which began in June 2007.

Participants included Greta Thunberg, who is on the board of the initiative. “The issue is about how people are deliberately deprived of the most basic means to survive. The story here is how the world can be silent,” said the young Swedish activist, accusing Tel Aviv of wanting to “erase the Palestinian nation.“

 

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At the same time, another twenty or so boats from Genoa left their moorings, with the ‘blessing’ of the mayor Silvia Salis. The previous evening, a well-attended demonstration (the organizers speak of 50,000 in attendance) brought citizens to the seafront for yet another demonstration of solidarity with the Gazawi victims of extermination. Representatives of the port workers promised to “block everything” – referring to shipments to Israel, including arms shipments, that regularly depart from Liguria – if violence is used against the Flotilla.

 Other ships have departed from different ports in the Western Mediterranean and all are sailing towards the central area of the Mare Nostrum, where, on 4 September, they will gather additional sailors from other locations, including Tunisia, Greece, and Sicily, for a total of some 50 boats with over 500 sailors from 44 countries. The objective is to break the blockade, or at least to broadcast the Israeli response live worldwide (in recent months, Tel Aviv blocked several humanitarian expeditions that had attempted to reach Gaza, sometimes resorting to pirate methods such as attacks with drones in international waters). The arrival was initially planned for mid-September.

Like any similar initiative, the Global Sumud Flotilla is not exempt from criticism either. Some observers have questioned its genuineness and appropriateness, wondering whether it is a truly useful gesture – given the near-zero chance of its success, the exorbitant costs of the mobilization, and a series of apparent logistical inefficiencies – or rather a media sensationalization to give yet another burst of Western performative activism with a veneer of humanitarian dignity with which global public opinion can ease its conscience.

Be that as it may, what is certain is that this is the only concrete action currently on the table aimed at stopping the ongoing carnage in Gaza and trying to corner Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but untouchable as long as he enjoys the unconditional protection of Western powers, starting with the United States. 

No government is exerting real pressure on Tel Aviv to put an end to the extermination of the Palestinians (labeled as genocide by Israeli NGOs themselves, as well as by several jurists and experts), to the ethnic cleansing in the Strip, the forced displacement, the apartheid in the West Bank, the extensive and systematic violations of human rights and, ultimately, the dismantling of the very foundations of international law. 

The latter
seems to have vanished, wiped out along with the buildings razed to the ground by the Israeli army (IDF), the
artificially created famine as in the days of the Holodomor, the murders of civilians, journalists, and medical personnel through terrorist methods, the unpunished settler violence, the extrajudicial detentions, and the abuses of all kinds that the Palestinian people have been suffering for decades, which have intensified severely in the last 22 months. Undisturbed, Netanyahu proceeds in tearing Palestine apart, from the demolitions in the West Bank to the assault on Gaza City that is still ongoing, and his fellow Donald Trump continues to brag about transforming Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

While Tel Aviv is reportedly considering annexing the entire Zone C – the portion of the West Bank (about 60 percent) that, under the Oslo Agreements of thirty years ago, is currently under “temporary” Israeli administrative and military control – as a response (sic) to the “threats” from different countries to recognize the State of Palestine at the upcoming UN General Assembly, EU leaders remain divided and in several cases risk paralyzing political crises. 

On the horizon, there is not even a qualified majority for a symbolic move, something like the partial suspension of Horizon+ funds to Israel, as certified by High Representative Kaja Kallas. “Member states do not agree on how to make the Israeli government change course,” the EU diplomacy chief admitted at the end of the informal Defense meeting held in Copenhagen the day before yesterday, declaring herself “not very optimistic” about the possibility of making progress anytime soon. Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier declined to comment on “specific cases,” responding to a question about military technology sold by Brussels to the IDF for the development of drones used against the Palestinians.