Freedom Flotilla

[Badh]

Thought this might be worth its own thread. The freedom flotilla The Madleen was getting close to Gaza but seems to have made a diversion, as it was the closest boat to answer a distress call. They seem to also have four Sudanese asylum seekers on board who were trying to escape the Libyan coast patrol.

The UK and France are asking Israel for its safe passage.

The tracker is here but is in and out of action.
https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/

More details here, although the latest detour is not covered in the article.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-navy-gears-up-to-block-high-profile-protest-ship-headed-for-gaza/amp/

Agree !!

I just had to look back and see if I’d jumped to another thread.
I couldn’t work out what was going on

What’s any of this got to do with The Freedom Flotilla,

Agree

Just saw it's 250 miles out from Gaza now .

Whether it’s the civil rights movement, the movement against apartheid in South Africa or the women, life, freedom movement in Iran they always had their critics, people saying it was pointless or dangerous. I think you have to ask who doesn’t want the truth to be heard. The people in power always want it to look weak or dangerous.

Non violent resistance like this is powerful because it makes its point without replicating injustice basically. And research shows it is twice as likely to succeed as violent campaigns.

Your 16 year old watching goes to show it’s bringing the Palestinians plight to younger generations

My ds at Exeter Uni and another at RH uni and their flat mates are watching too.

This is impassioning young people to have empathy and support humanitarian causes.

What is their plan if they get to Gaza? Drop off the small amount of aid they are carrying and leave? Or are they planning to stay in Gaza for a while?

Isreal knows the Flotilla is coming and have released a chilling statement that "they are prepared for a wide range of scenarios" (subtext they are not ruling out blowing up the ship). They are flying military drones over her ship.
There is aid on the ship, in particular baby food because all baby food has blocked by Israel.
Isreal are starving babies to death. Anyone who supports the reality or denies the reality of this can go to hell.

Isreal are blocking aid to Gaza by any means necessary.
They are blowing up ambulances and all staff inside them.
They are murdering journalists.
They are creating food banks then killing anyone who dares to use them.
This is all par for the course on their aim of killing all Palestinians in order to create the "Greater Isreal" and all Isrealis are behind this, enjoying this genocide because there is a sickness happening within Isreal society that hasn't been seen since the last world wars.

They are not ruling out killing Greta.

They certainly will not let her in, that's a given.

This is not a "publicity stunt" this is pure humanitarianism in action.

I'm praying for you Greta.

'All Israeli's are behind this, enjoying this genocide'?

Yes, a two second Google search would show you that there are many Israeli's against it.

Polls show that the vast majority of Israel citizens are behind it.

You said ALL Israelis are behind this and enjoying it.

When it comes to starving babies, killing thousands of children and innocent Palestinians and killing Greta Thunburg, I don't think trying to pick at a word or two that I said is really going to wash anymore.

Yet everything Hamas (a terrorist organisation) says is taken as absolute truth. Every Israeli strike, every single civilian death, all the propaganda and SM posts coming out of Gaza… nobody ever analyses or takes apart or even questions any of that.
But the literal GoPro footage filmed by terrorists themselves as they raped, burned, slaughtered and kidnapped - that must be wrong! How can that be? How is it possible that resistance and freedom fighters raped and tortured women while screaming god is great? Let’s get on the news and pull all the evidence apart. Y’know like George Orwell said (I’m using artistic license): Hamas good, Jews bad.

Actually, yes it does. You have basically just labelled every single Israeli as evil, genocidal, baby killing, maniacs.

Presumably with that in mind, like Hamas, you'd like to see a genocide of the Israeli people.

How you think views like yours will help anyone is beyond me.

See my comment above.

How many Israelis do you know?

@Circumferences They seem to but also important to mention that there is also very brave peaceful action by Israelis. Particularly Standing together who have risked their safety to protect others. Standing together’s support has been increasing since the war.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblogentry/tel-aviv-anti-government-protesters-rage-at-pm-silent-vigil-for-gazas-slain-children-swells-in-size/

https://www.standing-together.org/en

Hearts and minds can change as well. We have seen this many times in history.

I don’t know who you are or anything about you. But I want to thank you deeply for your balanced and informed stance. It’s a light among the dark horror of this forum.

I would think it very obvious that the people who support the Madleen boat would already be donating to charities supporting the Palestinian people, it's perfectly possible to do both!

Again, could people take discussions not relating to the Freedom Flotilla boat to a separate thread please? I’m here to follow the boat!

@Nowayyousure practical assistance isn’t the most useful right now unfortunately. There is aid at the border, it’s just not being let in at any useful quantity. The most logical action at this point is to put pressure on international governments to take concrete actions on Israel such as pulling out of trade agreements, putting sanctions on individuals.
This action is part of a jigsaw of actions that together can save lives.

Peace is far away, maybe even out of reach right now but putting pressure on Israel to allow a flow of aid into Gaza will save thousands of lives and avoid a catastrophe in the short term.

@Bumble6 There has been freedom flotillas since the blockade. Only the 2008 ones were allowed to land. They were greeted with flags . They stayed for a few weeks and visited schools, hospitals and gave media interviews. They took Palestinian students (with places abroad) and people who needed medical help with them on their departure.

This is a very small boat. But with the port in Gaza almost destroyed I suspect they’d struggle to land safely anyway. I doubt they expect to be able to land now. Israel have said they won’t be allowed to.

I think they're very brave and I hope they complete their mission safely.

There's so much nitpicking over the size of the boat and the people on it and "how much aid can there be" - it's a symbolic act.

If they can get the boat through, it will hopefully inspire others to do the same in greater number.

If they can't get the boat through, it exposes that Israel is indeed withholding aid from Gaza.

If (god forbid) any harm comes to them, it shines an even bigger spotlight on the situation and shows something of the reality of life for Palestinian people in Gaza.

Bravo to the people about the Maddlen especially Liam Cunningham. The amount of aid is symbolic , it's all about raising awareness of the Israeli Genocide in Palestine. Last month the Israeli government attacked a ship by drone with aid in European waters. How can the EU stand by and see legitimate vessels attacked in their water ( never mind the abject genocide carried out on the Palestinian people)

One of the activists who got to Gaza to help in 2008 and stayed there was abducted and murdered by an Islamist group which is why I asked whether Greta and her crew intend to stay if they make it through. Greta would be a prime target for an act like that. I wonder if they presume they won't get past the Israeli navy.