<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container content-width3" style="--font-size:20px;">
<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="http://www.palestinechronicle.com/on-the-road-to-gaza-the-freedom-flotilla-will-sail-again/">http://www.palestinechronicle.com/on-the-road-to-gaza-the-freedom-flotilla-will-sail-again/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">On the Road to Gaza: The Freedom
Flotilla Will Sail Again</h1>
<div class="meta-data">
<div class="reader-estimated-time">December 25, 2019<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div>
<figure>
<img
src="http://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Freedom-Flotilla.jpg"
alt="" title="Freedom-Flotilla">
<figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The international
Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) states the next
Freedom Flotilla will sail again in spring 2020 to
challenge the Israeli siege. (Photo: via Twitter)</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>By <a
href="http://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ramzy-baroud"
title="Display all articles for Ramzy Baroud">Ramzy
Baroud</a></strong></p>
<p>What is Gaza to us but an Israeli missile, a
rudimentary rocket, a demolished home, an injured child
being whisked away by his peers under a hail of bullets?
On a daily basis, Gaza is conveyed to us as a bloody
image or a dramatic video, none of which can truly
capture the everyday reality of the Strip – its
formidable steadfastness, the everyday acts of
resistance, and the type of suffering that can never be
really understood through a customary glance at a social
media post.</p>
<p>At long last, the chief prosecutor of the International
Court of Justice (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, has declared her
‘satisfaction’ that “war crimes have been – or are being
– committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,
and the Gaza Strip”. As soon as the <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/dec/20/icc-to-investigate-alleged-israeli-and-palestinian-war-crimes"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ICC
statement</a> was made on December 20, pro-Palestinian
groups felt a rare moment of relief. Finally, Israel
will stand accused, potentially paying for its recurring
bloodbath in the isolated and besieged Gaza Strip, its
military occupation and apartheid in the West Bank, and
much more.</p>
<p>However, it could take years for the ICC to initiate
its legal proceedings and render its verdict. Moreover,
there are no political guarantees that an ICC decision
indicting Israel would ever be respected, let alone
implemented.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the siege on Gaza persists, only to be
interrupted by a massive war, like the one of <a
href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-conflict-50-day-war-by-numbers-9693310.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2014</a>, or
a less destructive one, similar to the latest <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-islamic-jihad.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Israeli
onslaught</a> in November. And with every war, more
dismal statistics are produced, more lives shattered,
and more painful stories are told and retold.</p>
<p>For years, civil society groups across the world
labored to destabilize this horrific status quo. They
organized, held vigils, wrote letters to their political
representatives and so on. To no avail. Frustrated by
government inaction, a small group of activists <a
href="https://legalcasesagainstisraelattacksoncivilianboatstogaza.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/31-boats-challenge-israeli-naval-blockade-of-gaza/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sailed</a> to
Gaza in a small boat in August 2008, succeeding in doing
what the United Nations has failed to do: they broke,
however fleetingly, the Israeli siege on the
impoverished Strip.</p>
<p>This symbolic action of the Free Gaza movement had a
tremendous impact. It sent a clear message to
Palestinians in occupied Palestine, that their fate is
not only determined by the Israeli government and
military machine; that there are other actors who are
capable of challenging the dreadful silence of the
international community; that not all Westerners are as
complicit as their governments in the prolonged
suffering of the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>Since then, many more solidarity missions have
attempted to follow suit, coming across the sea atop
flotillas or in large caravans through the Sinai desert.
Some have successfully reached Gaza, delivering medical
aid and other supplies. The majority, however, were sent
back or had their boats hijacked in international waters
by the Israeli navy.</p>
<p>The outcome of all of this has been the writing of a
new chapter of solidarity with the Palestinian people
that went beyond the occasional demonstration and the
typical signing of a petition.</p>
<p>The second Palestinian Intifada, the uprising of 2002,
had already redefined the role of the “activist” in
Palestine. The formation of the International Solidarity
Movement (ISM) allowed thousands of international
activists from around the world to participate in
“direct action” in Palestine – thus fulfilling, however
symbolically, a role that is typically played by a
United Nations protective force.</p>
<p>ISM activists, however, employed non-violent means of
registering civil society’s rejection of the Israeli
occupation. Expectedly, Israel did not honor the fact
that many of these activists came from countries deemed
“friendly” by Tel Aviv’s standards. The killing of US
and British nationals <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/four-eyewitnesses-describe-murder-rachel-corrie/4460"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rachel
Corrie</a> and <a
href="https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/tomhurndall.html"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tom Hurndall</a> in
Gaza in 2003 and 2004 respectively, was just the
precursor of Israeli violence that was to follow.</p>
<p>In May 2010, the Israeli navy <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/31/israeli-attacks-gaza-flotilla-activists"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">attacked</a> the
Freedom Flotilla consisting of the Turkish-owned ship
‘MV Mavi Marmara’ and others, killing ten unarmed
humanitarian workers and wounding at least 50 more. As
was the case with the murder of Rachel and Tom, there
was no real accountability for the Israeli attack on the
solidarity boats.</p>
<p>It must be understood that Israeli violence is not
random nor is just a reflection of Israel’s notoriety
and disregard of international and humanitarian law.
With every violent episode, Israel hopes to dissuade
outside actors from getting involved in “Israeli
affairs”. Yet, time and again, the solidarity movement
returns with a defiant message, insisting that no
country, not even Israel, has the right to commit war
crimes with impunity.</p>
<p>Following a recent <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191202-new-freedom-flotilla-will-sail-for-gaza-in-summer-2020/">meeting</a> in
the Dutch city of Rotterdam, the International Coalition
of the Freedom Flotilla, which consists of many
international groups, has decided to, once more, sail to
Gaza. The solidarity mission is scheduled for the summer
of 2020, and, like most of the 35 previous attempts, the
Flotilla is likely to be intercepted by the Israeli
navy. Yet, another attempt will likely follow, and many
more, until the Gaza siege is completely lifted. It has
become clear that the purpose of these humanitarian
missions is not to deliver a few medical supplies to the
nearly two million besieged Gazans, but to challenge the
Israeli narrative that has turned the occupation and
isolation of Palestinians to a status quo ante, to an
“Israeli affair”.</p>
<p>According to the United Nations Office in Occupied
Palestine, the <a
href="https://www.ochaopt.org/content/53-cent-palestinians-gaza-live-poverty-despite-humanitarian-assistance"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">poverty rate</a> in
Gaza seems to be increasing at an alarming speed of 2%
per year. By the end of 2017, 53% of Gaza’s population
lived in poverty, two-thirds of them living in “deep
poverty”. This terrible number includes over 400,000
children.</p>
<p>An image, a video, a chart or a social media post can
never convey the pain of 400,000 children, who
experience real hunger every single day of their lives
so that the Israeli government may achieve its military
and political designs in Gaza. Indeed, Gaza is not just
an Israeli missile, a demolished home, and an injured
child. It is an entire nation that is suffering and
resisting, in near-complete isolation from the rest of
the world.</p>
<p>True solidarity should aim at forcing Israel to end the
protracted occupation and siege on the Palestinian
people, sailing the high seas, if necessary. Thankfully,
the good activists of the Freedom Flotilla are doing
just that.</p>
<p><i><span>– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor
of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five
books. His latest is “</span></i><a
href="https://www.amazon.com/These-Chains-Will-Broken-Palestinian/dp/1949762092"><i><span>These
Chains Will Be Broken</span></i></a><i><span>:
Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in
Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr.
Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at
the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA),
Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is </span></i><a
href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/"><i><span>www.ramzybaroud.net</span></i></a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>