Grassroots activists taking to the sea in a nonviolent act of defiance
In a moment marked more by grim news than hope, support for the Global Sumud Flotilla from leading international voices such as Dr. Gabor Maté and Professor Alessandro Barbero arrives not as mere endorsement, but as a vital affirmation of our shared humanity. It is a solidarity that strengthens the resolve to challenge the siege of Gaza, fueling a determined hope that this grassroots mission can help pave a way towards justice.
Global Sumud Flotilla: What is it, and what’s the goal?
This is a grassroots movement that brings people together for global solidarity actions to support Gaza and end the siege. It was previously called the Global March to Gaza.
“We are a coalition of everyday people: organizers, humanitarians, doctors, artists, clergy, lawyers, and seafarers who believe in human dignity and the power of nonviolent action.”
People from the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the Global Movement to Gaza, and the Sumud Nusantara have come together with one goal: to break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor, and help end the suffering of the Palestinian people.
The genocide in Gaza
Some people deny the crisis or claim that life in Gaza is fine and there is no food problem. In fact, Israelis are even paying influencers to portray a reality of normal life in Gaza. But the facts are clear. For the first time, two of Israel’s leading human rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights, have called it what it is: genocide.
Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians and using famine as a weapon of mass destruction.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have collectively and consistently highlighted the extreme urgency for an immediate and full-scale humanitarian response given the escalating hunger-related deaths, rapidly worsening levels of acute malnutrition and plummeting levels of food consumption, with hundreds of thousands of people going days without anything to eat. (via WHO).
The agencies stressed that famine must be stopped at all costs.
Furthermore, an intensified military offensive in Gaza City or any escalation in the conflict would have even more devastating effects on civilians, especially where famine is already present. Many people, including sick and malnourished children, older adults, and people with disabilities, may not be able to leave.
What can you do?
As Albert Einstein warned,
“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”
During the Nazi era, information was suppressed and inaccessible in a way that is almost unimaginable today. Now, we are without excuse. We cannot claim we did not know.
This is why the Global Sumud Flotilla exists.
On August 31st from Spain, and September 4th from Tunisia, a coalition of the conscience will make history. Dozens of boats—large and small—will set sail, converging on Gaza in the largest coordinated civilian flotilla ever assembled. It is a direct, nonviolent challenge to the siege, a mission of visible solidarity.
They are sailing to break the blockade. Here’s how you can help them succeed