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"Our boats carry more than aid. They carry a message—the siege must end. The greater danger lies not in confronting Israel at sea, but in allowing genocide to continue with impunity."
Palestine defenders are preparing for the latest—and largest—Freedom Flotilla Coalition mission to set sail for Gaza in an attempt to break Israel's US-backed genocidal siege on the embattled Palestinian territory.
Dozens of boats carrying hundreds of activists from as many as 44 nations are set to take part in the Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud means "perseverance" in Arabic—as it attempts to run Israel's naval blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid including food, medicines, and baby formula to the starving people of 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," Global Sumud Flotilla's website explains.
In addition to "everyday people," flotilla participants include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, American actress Susan Sarandon, Irish actor Liam Cunningham, leftist Portuguese parliamentarian Mariana Mortágua, former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, and Mandla Mandela, the grandson of former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Israel "is starving and killing the people of Gaza," Mandela—whose grandfather was not only a hero of his country's anti-apartheid struggle but also a staunch supporter of Palestinian liberation—said Friday on behalf of the South African flotilla delegation. "We are a diverse group of international activists calling for urgent global action to compel Israel to open Gaza's borders to aid and end its genocide of the Palestinian people."
"We ask that South Africans of conscience join us," he added. South Africa is leading an ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague that is officially or informally supported by around two dozen nations.
Colau said earlier this week that "to end the genocide in Gaza is the duty of all of us, so we have to do what is in our power to do it if governments, including the government of Spain, do not do what they can to stop the criminal state of Israel."
Spain has joined the ICJ genocide case against Israel, has formally recognized Palestinian statehood and urged other nations to do so, and has taken significant steps toward an arms embargo on Israel.
"Although Spain has positioned itself more than other governments and recognized the Palestinian state, words are not enough when thousands of children are being killed," Colau said Friday in an interview with RTE.
At least 18,500 children are among the more than 63,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023—although the official Gaza Health Ministry figures are likely a vast undercount, according to peer-reviewed studies.
"This is my third attempt to try to sail with humanitarian aid to break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza and open up a humanitarian corridor," Thunberg, who is a member of the flotilla steering committee, told Middle East Eye Thursday.
"There have been 38 previous attempts just for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and now with the Global Sumud Flotilla," Thunberg continued. "This is unprecedented. We are mobilizing people from all over the world with dozens of boats sailing from Barcelona first, and then more boats joining us from other ports around the Mediterranean Sea."
"We are doing this because we are facing a genocide," she added. "We are seeing people being deliberately deprived of their basic means to sustain life. And this is a continuation of the suffocating oppression that Palestinians have been living under for decades, and we simply have no choice if we have any sense of humanity left, we cannot just sit by and watch this unfolding."
The Gaza Famine—officially declared last week by the authoritative Integrated Food Security Phase Classification—has claimed at least hundreds of Palestinian lives in what experts say is an engineered effort by Israel. The International Criminal Court arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who ordered the "complete siege" on Gaza fueling the famine, list forced starvation, along with murder, as alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the pair.
Earlier this year, the FFC vessels Conscience, Madleen, and Handala each separately tried to break the blockade but were thwarted by Israeli forces in international waters, an apparent violation of maritime law. Flotilla activists were beaten, kidnapped, jailed, interrogated, and deported by Israel.
Fifteen years ago, Israeli forces raided one of the first FFC convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Israeli attackers killed nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
The Sumud Flotilla comes as Israeli forces ramp up Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign of conquest, occupation, and ethnic cleansing of Gaza backed by the administration of US President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich proposed the systematic annexation of Gaza over the coming months if Hamas keeps fighting, as well as the implementation of Trump's plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian exclave and transform it into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Israel's siege of Gaza has been in effect in varying degrees of severity since 2006 in response to Hamas' rise to power in the strip.
"The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger," a senior adviser to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the time.
Now Palestinians are dying of hunger, and the world has increasingly had enough.
"Our boats carry more than aid," Global Sumud Flotilla said. "They carry a message—the siege must end. The greater danger lies not in confronting Israel at sea, but in allowing genocide to continue with impunity."
"Why is it that cinema, a breeding ground for socially committed works, seems to be so indifferent to the horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers?"
On Monday, in the lead-up to the annual Cannes Film Festival in France, nearly 400 international actors, directors, and producers released an open letter condemning Israel's genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The letter—published by French newspaper Libération and U.S. magazine Variety—begins with Fatma Hassona a 25-year-old Palestinian freelance photojournalist killed in an Israeli military strike on April 16, 2025, just a day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi's film Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, in which she stars, was selected to premiere at a section of the festival.
Just weeks earlier, in March, "Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, who won an Oscar for his film No Other Land, was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers and then kidnapped by the army, before being released under international pressure," the letter details, noting that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was pushed to apoloize for not adequately supporting him.
"We are ashamed of such passivity," asserted the signatories, including Pedro Almodóvar, Javier Bardem, Ralph and Sophie Fiennes, Richard Gere, Jonathan Glazer, Viggo Mortensen, Cynthia Nixon, Ruben Östlund, Guy Pearce, Laura Poitras, Mark Ruffalo, and Susan Sarandon.
"Let us collectively dare to look at it with the precision of our sensitive hearts, so that it can no longer be silenced and covered up."
"Why is it that cinema, a breeding ground for socially committed works, seems to be so indifferent to the horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers?" they asked. "As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard."
In addition to condemning silence in the face of genocide, they argued that "far-right, fascism, colonialism, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA+, sexist, racist, islamophobic, and antisemitic movements are waging their battle on the battlefield of ideas, attacking publishing, cinema, and universities, and that's why we have a duty to fight."
"Let's refuse to let our art be an accomplice to the worst," the letter declares. "Let us rise up. Let us name reality. Let us collectively dare to look at it with the precision of our sensitive hearts, so that it can no longer be silenced and covered up. Let us reject the propaganda that constantly colonizes our imaginations and makes us lose our sense of humanity."
Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi looks at a portrait of the late Palestinian photographer Fatima Hassona at her home in Paris, France on May 5, 2025. (Photo: Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)
Farsi—who also signed the letter—welcomed the impact of her film featuring Hassona but also called on Cannes organizers to denounce Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed over 52,900 Palestinians since October 2023 and left the enclave's more than 2 million survivors struggling to access essentials, due to an Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid.
"There needs to be a real statement," Farsi
told Agence France-Presse. "Saying 'the festival isn't political' makes no sense."
"Will you be the president who helped put an end to the plastic pollution crisis, or someone who let it spiral further out of control?"
Actors known for their environmental advocacy—including Jane Fonda, Jason Momoa, Joaquin Phoenix, Susan Sarandon, and Laura Dern—joined Greenpeace USA on Thursday in an open letter to U.S. President Joe Biden urging his administration to "protect the planet from plastic pollution" and slash carbon emissions "by supporting a strong global plastics treaty."
"We appreciate your leadership in securing a global oceans treaty that creates a path to protecting 30% of our oceans by 2030," the letter's signers told Biden. "Winning the treaty was truly a historic moment, one of the greatest environmental achievements in history."
"We're calling on President Biden to put aside fossil fuel and plastics industry interests and lead us on the path that prioritizes human health, biodiversity, and our communities."
"At the end of May, delegates from around the world will convene in Paris for the second round of negotiations on a global plastics treaty," the letter continues, referring to talks hosted by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
"While you have signaled support for this treaty, the U.S. position is not yet strong enough," the letter argues. "Currently, the U.S. is not calling for a cap on plastic production—which is the only real way to stop plastic pollution. In 2021, the U.S. only recycled a mere 5% of plastics produced."
\u201cDozens of public figures have joined Greenpeace USA in calling on @POTUS to support an ambitious, legally binding Global #PlasticsTreaty that caps plastics production and supports solutions like refill & reuse! \ud83d\udc4f\n\nThank you for lending your voices \ud83d\udd3d https://t.co/qc5IOkuYsX\u201d— Greenpeace USA (@Greenpeace USA) 1684427402
The letter continues:
Plastics are polluting and harmful at every stage of their life cycle—from extraction to disposal. Ninety-nine percent of plastics come from fossil fuels; cutting plastic production will make a significant dent in carbon emissions. There are communities living next to refineries and petrochemical facilities who are bearing the combined brunt of the climate and plastic crises. People living near these facilities—overwhelmingly people of color—face higher rates of cancer, asthma, and adverse birth outcomes.
"President Biden, you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help our climate, our oceans, and our communities this year by supporting a strong and ambitious global plastics treaty," the signers asserted. "The decision you make on this critical issue will help define your legacy—will you be the president who helped put an end to the plastic pollution crisis, or someone who let it spiral further out of control? We're calling on you to do the right thing."
Other actors who signed the letter include Rosana Arquette, Alec Baldwin, Ed Begley, Ted Danson, Piper Perabo, Kyra Sedgwick, William Shatner, and Shailene Woodley.
\u201cPLASTIC IS EVERYWHERE \ud83d\udc40 \n\nWe need a Global Plastics Treaty Now! \n\u26a0\ufe0fSign the petition >> https://t.co/HYJelSJO2i\u201d— Greenpeace USA (@Greenpeace USA) 1683904641
Greenpeace is proposing a seven-point plan for the global plastics treaty:
"Many environmental groups and frontline communities are disappointed with the U.S.' current position on the treaty, as it does not call for a cap on plastic production and instead focuses on recycling," Greenpeace USA senior plastics campaigner Lisa Ramsden said in a statement.
"Recycling will never solve the plastic waste problem," Ramsden added. "We must stop plastic waste at its source, and we're calling on President Biden to put aside fossil fuel and plastics industry interests and lead us on the path that prioritizes human health, biodiversity, and our communities."
On Tuesday, UNEP published a report contending that global plastic pollution can be reduced by 80% by 2040 if countries and corporations enact major changes using existing technologies. However, the report was criticized by some environmentalists for promoting the burning of plastic waste.
\u201cThe exclusion of civil society from the plastics treaty negotiations is unprecedented in multilateral negotiations. Goes against the grain of participatory democratic principles that the @UNEP is supposed to uphold!#PlasticsTreaty @third_pole @BBCWorld @LeFigaro_News @lemondelive\u201d— Dharmesh Shah #PlasticsTreaty (@Dharmesh Shah #PlasticsTreaty) 1684285907
UNEP has also come under fire in recent days for issuing just one pass per organization attending the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Paris.