The Global Sumud Flotilla has left Barcelona, Spain’s port city, with the intention of “reversing Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza.”
Around 3:30pm on Sunday, the boats started leaving the port, and there were crowds of supporters, supporters, and well-wishers waiting to see the crews.
“Nobody was expecting so many people to wave goodbye to the volunteers,” remarked Mauricio Morales, who was on board the Familia, one of the Flotilla boats. In this particular boat, people are strangers, and the spirits of each have a distinct role.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg and other prominent individuals who were sailing with the Flotilla spoke out hours before their departures about Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.
Israel’s statements regarding their genocidal intentions are very explicit. They want to oust Palestine as a whole. Thunberg criticized politicians and governments for “failing to uphold international law” and said they wanted to take control of the Gaza Strip.
She claimed that they are breaking their most fundamental legal obligations to take action to stop their complicity and support of the Palestinian occupation and genocide.
Palestinian activist Saif Abukeshek criticized Israel’s use of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza. He claimed that because of a government’s intentional starvation, “Palestinians are being starved to death.”
According to Abukeshek, “the government intentionally bombs Palestinian children and families every day to kill as many Palestinians as possible.” Your main objective is essentially to eliminate the presence of the Palestinian population when you bomb hospitals, bomb schools, or bomb educational facilities.
As part of its plan to overtake Gaza City and forcefully retake the area’s population, Israel stepped up its efforts to seize the city and forcefully retake the area, which was followed by the United Nations declaring a state of famine in Gaza this month.
“We will be back,” promises the statement.
Thunberg mentioned “dozens” of vessels, but the Global Sumud Flotilla, which describes itself as an independent organization unaffiliated with any political party or government, did not specify how many would sail or when would the ships would arrive.
Sumud in Arabic means “persistence.”
Everyone who signed up for the Flotilla has a strong belief in its goal.
From aboard the Familia, Morales said, “It was difficult to say goodbye to my two kids, but I’m doing this because I think keeping track of what our colleagues in Gaza and the West Bank are doing… this is easy compared to what they endure every day.”
The flotilla, which is made up of delegations from 44 nations, will be joined by “many more boats from different ports” in Greece, Italy, and Tunisia, according to Yasemin Acar, the organizer of the flotilla.
By mid-September, the maritime convoy is anticipated to arrive in Gaza along with activists, European legislators, and prominent public figures.
The flotilla was “a legal mission under international law,” according to left-leaning Portuguese lawmaker Mariana Mortagua, who will join the mission, last week.
Israel had previously blocked two attempts by activists to send aid by ship to Gaza.
12 activists on board the Madleen were detained by Israeli forces 185 kilometers (115 miles) west of Gaza in June. Acar and Thunberg were among the passengers who were detained and eventually expelled.
21 activists from 10 nations were detained on a different vessel, the Handala, as they attempted to get to Gaza in July.
We attempted to sail with the Handala two months ago, according to the Madleen. And the Zionist entity also targeted, abducted, and brought our way against our will. However, Acar claimed that they did say they would return.
The flotilla was “an important act of symbolic resistance” that would “create a spectacle,” according to Mohamad Elmasry of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, with Israel likely finding it “logistically challenging” to deal with the number of vessels arriving at the same time.
They will ultimately be intercepted, they say. They will be detained or otherwise returned, he said. The famine won’t be solved by this, says one expert. Governments doing their jobs to stop genocide and deliberate starvation are ultimately what will solve the famine.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply