Global Sumud Flotilla heading for Gaza

[smallglassbottle]

https://youtube.com/shorts/whzFomXOWVs?si=WwgxrwCycwxx_OTf

The largest aid flotilla so far.

Israel is at war and has a naval blockade in place for its own safety. By disregarding this (and refusing to watch the film, last time), Greta has made it clear she doesn't give a shit about Israel. What she is "delivering" is going to make no difference at all, but places Israel in the position of having to ensure her safety in a war zone. Whatever happens will be exploited as propaganda by Hamas. The sad thing about all this is that she probably thinks she is acting against fascism, when the reverse is true. I hope one day she will understand her own blind arrogance, but somehow I doubt it.

They would be trapping themselves in Gaza - taking a vessel to Gaza which is run by a terrorist organisation in the middle of a high intensity war with no means of refuelling or provisioning the vessel for the return journey in Autumn is dipstick stupidity of the highest order. All in order to deliver minuscule amounts of aid. I mean what could possibly go wrong?

Still I'm sure they will generate some great social media self publicity.

Greta isn't breaking any laws. Aid must be let through if there is a shortage in the blackaded territory. The blockade has been in place for decades hence the fact that flotillas have been risking their lives and sometimes been killed for trying to break the siege for decades, this isn't a wartime action on Israels behalf this is a longtime policy.

That people are more appalled by a flotilla attempting to reach a territory that has seen children die of malnutrion than they are by the army enforcing starvation on the territory speaks volumes. No calls for Netanyahu to be 'locked up indefinitely' from those posters, just the people trying to break the siege. But sure we believe you when you say that 'nobody wants to see Palestinians suffer'.

Sorry but what crime are they committing other than illegal entry into Israeli occupied waters? For which the penalty is deportation not prison or a fine.

That is if the occupation were legal, but it has been ruled illegal by the ICJ. So really they are trying to break through the sea blockade of an illegal occupier of Palestinian waters.

Legally, it’s a bit like how the US ran ships with food aid to the UK past the blockade of U boats in the English Channel.

No. What we are pointing out is the futility of the flotilla. That it wont be making any meaningful contribution to alleviate the shortage of aid and that it could actually make the situation worse by diverting resources to managing them. Anyone cares about aid to palestinians would want an effective solution not applauding this self indulgent grandstanding. I don't think anyone is particularly appalled by it. I'd describe my emotion more as despair that people put so much effort into something so pointless and people dont have the critical skills to see it.

I think they should let them land in Gaza - then sink the boats

A futilla ?

It’s not going to make the situation worse. No Israeli navy resources are being used in the humanitarian aid process. Hamas has no navy. They don’t even have fishing boats or rubber dinghies.

The flotilla is utterly futile to deliver humanitarian aid but it is a direct action protest highlighting the fact there is no longer a security or military need for a sea blockade for Israel to win the war.

That humanitarian aid could be brought by sea in large numbers- the concept was proven by the US pier.

Given that the roads are impassable rubble, and airdrops are dangerously chaotic, I think it is past time to reconsider flooding Gaza with aid by land and sea. Of course, all this done by actual humanitarian organisations. Not GHF.

I would imagine part of the reason Isreal is trying to stop.them is they don't want them being taken hostage by Hamas and then they have to risk Israeli loves retrieving them

Where's that laughing emoji!?

Yes that's one scenario that would make things worse. There are plenty of others.

I used to wonder why Israel had blockades. Now, I really, REALLY understand it 😬

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

🤣

It's direct action alright. She's directly acting like a dick.

You lot do realise that internationals have travelled to Gaza for literal decades, right? Pre-Oslo, under the PA, under Hamas? And that there has just never been any sustained pattern of them being targeted by any Palestinian factions.

Since the 2000s, a total of three foreigners have been killed by Palestinians in the oPt: two were international observers to Hebron and killed in a shooting around a bypass (settler only) road (unclear which faction if any). The third was an Italian journalist and activist, kidnapped and killed in the Gaza Strip in 2010 by some ISIS-affiliated group; this was roundly condemned by all Palestinian factions.

In other words: those are fewer than Israel killed in the WCK strike alone.

Admittedly, I do find the fantasies on this thread re. the heroic IDF rescuing Europeans illuminating - just not quite in the way you probably think: it tells me people have very little actual idea of what these places are actually like, what's safe, what isn't, what the real risks are, etc.

And I'm saying this as someone who has spent ample time in both Israel and the West Bank (and once, very briefly, Gaza).

Classic 😆 🤣 😂

Can you furnish those who haven't travelled to the region, with your expertise.

ETA: @somewomansomewhere

And you think its safe in Gaza aye 🙄

You know there's a war on?

I never said that, nice strawman, though. I said there is literally no history of foreigners being targetted by Palestinians.

The Gaza Strip is obviously very much unsafe - for locals as well as internationals. But you are orders of magnitude more likely to be killed by Israel there than by any Palestinians.

That is just a matter of, you know, established record. I have listed the three known instances of foreigners being killed by Palestinians and the circumstances. The total number for all of the oPt is three since 2000, one of which killed in Gaza.

During the same period, Israel killed (only in Gaza or adjacent, excluding the West Bank):

• American Rachel Corrie
• Brits James Miller and Tom Hurndall
• 10 Turkish activists on a previous flotilla
• 6 foreign humanitarians in the WCK attack (various nationalities, including three Brits)

Total: 19

My overall point is: the people on this thread fantasising about how foreigners in Gaza would "be kidnapped" in a manner that sounds like thinly veiled glee are just ... wrong!

Thinly veiled glee is very much in your imagination. The point being in a war zone entirely unprepared, inexperienced people with a saviour complex are a liability.

So basically, Gaza is unsafe for everyone, including Greta. Got it.

Correct - but not, as claimed by various posters, because foreigners might need rescuing by the IDF or need protecting from Palestinians.

My point is simply: people seem to be constructing their own little fantasy realities about stuff that just ... demonstrably isn't true.

I had to stifle my giggle of irony at your last paragraph.