The Madeleine Ship: A Message of Solidarity with Gaza and a Determined Stand to Break the Siege
A ship organized by the International Freedom Flotilla Coalition is due to set sail from the Italian port of Catania on Sunday, in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Named Madeleine, after Palestinian fisherwoman Madeleine Kolab, the vessel is carrying a small group of international activists and symbolic humanitarian aid. The mission is intended to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and to assert their right to maritime access amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the territory
This voyage comes less than a month after an Israeli drone attacked the ship “Al-Damir” in international waters off the Maltese coast while it was en route to Gaza. The ship “Madeleine” is a call to break the siege on Gaza.
A Message of Resistance and Support
Our message, as an international committee that aims to break the siege on Gaza, as a founding member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and as part of international solidarity movements, is firstly to our people in Gaza.
Its essence is that we, as international activists and Palestinians in the diaspora, and as part of solidarity work groups, affirm that the feelings of inadequacy, betrayal, and helplessness weigh heavily on us and nearly destroy us. However, we strive and do our best with what we have and within our capabilities (in all areas where we reside), alongside friends of Palestine, defenders of Gaza, and those who oppose the crimes of the occupation. We raise our voices loudly to say: we are with you, and we are working hard to create a powerful public movement that rejects the war and demands the opening of crossings and the entry of humanitarian aid and necessities of life for the people in Gaza. This is the least we can do for those who are sacrificing their lives and everything they have for freedom, dignity, the homeland, and the holy sites.
The second message is to affirm that the targeting of the flotilla ships and Israeli piracy in international waters will not deter us from continuing our efforts to break the siege, pressure for the opening of the crossings, and allow the entry of aid and basic life necessities.
As we engage in this risky endeavor, we are fully aware of the scale of crimes committed by the apartheid, settler-colonial, and imperialist spearhead state known as Israel. However, these crimes will not stop us from fulfilling our humanitarian duty. We say to the occupation state: these crimes will not bring peace and stability to the “Israeli people in the region”. There can be no peace without ending the occupation and returning the land and rights to their rightful owners.
Our small ship, Madeleine, will set sail with a limited number of international activists who refuse to remain silent and submissive. They reject the continuation of occupation crimes and the positions of their governments, which still do nothing and take no real measures to stop the war. In fact, many of them are complicit in the crime through their silence and their military and political support and by granting impunity to this rogue state in defiance of international law.
Our ship, “Madeleine,” carries with its activists a message of love, peace, and support to our people in Gaza, and a message of protest against all the world’s governments that remain silent about this ongoing blockade and about the denial of food and basic life essentials to over two million Palestinians in Gaza. It sends a special message to neighboring countries that are separated from Gaza and Palestine only by decisions of rulers and by positions of betrayal and fear for their thrones from the raging American president Trump, and the head of his gang and his envoy to the Middle East, Netanyahu.
This ship, “Madeleine,” and others like it that aim to break the siege also address Arab and Muslim rulers: “Shame on you.” Such silence and betrayal of the people and neighbors are unworthy of Arab and Muslim honor. What will history record about your positions in this most critical phase of the cause and the entire region?
However, the betrayal and unprecedented weakness of the rulers do not exempt the peoples from their humanitarian responsibility and the duty to act, each according to their circumstances and capacity. No human being with dignity and compassion can stand by and watch what is happening to our people in Gaza. So what about those who are Arabs and Muslims and are only a stone’s throw away from proud and sacrificing Gaza?
A Strong Popular Movement to Deliver Aid to the Gaza Strip
This movement at sea is paralleled by a popular land movement attempting to reach the Rafah crossing and break the land blockade and deliver aid that has been accumulating in Al-Arish and Rafah for months. This movement is represented by three major international events:
- The first is the Global March to Gaza, which calls on activists around the world to travel to Cairo and from there organize themselves to head toward Gaza. They hope that the Egyptian authorities will facilitate their movement or at least not obstruct them under security pretexts that no longer convince anyone.
- The second land movement is the Arab Resilience Convoy, which will travel from Tunisia to Libya and then to Cairo and Rafah, aiming to reach Gaza, with the support of the International Committee and the International Coalition to Break the Siege on Gaza.
- The third movement is the Diplomatic and Human Rights Convoy, launched by Palestinian human rights organizations and coordinated with many countries, supported by hundreds of solidarity and rights institutions worldwide to pressure for the opening of the crossings, especially the Egyptian Rafah crossing, which has remained mostly closed since the war began in October 2023 until now. Its closure has tightened further in the past three months, in a manner that contravenes international law, ethics, the values and principles of Arab brotherhood, and neighborly rights—especially in times of war, which has become a mad war that spares no one and uses starvation as a deadly weapon to implement the schemes of Netanyahu and Trump, aiming to either empty Gaza of its people or kill them, imposing total hegemony of the occupation state over the region and crowning Netanyahu as the sole leader of the Middle East.
— Zaher Birawi, Palestinian Journalist – Head of the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza and Founding Member of the International Freedom Flotilla Coalition.
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