June 2025

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Madleen departed from Catania, Sicily on June 1, 2025, and is sailing entirely through European and international waters—into Palestinian territorial waters to Gaza. The vessel carries unarmed civilians and humanitarian cargo, including baby formula, medical supplies, and other life-saving aid for the besieged population of Gaza. The ship is unarmed, poses no threat, and is operating in full accordance with international maritime, humanitarian and human rights law. Its passengers and crew include parliamentarians, journalists, attorneys and human rights defenders representing global civil society.

As the occupying power in Gaza, under international law, Israel is bound by the Geneva Conventions, customary international humanitarian law, and the UN Charter. Israel has a legal obligation to respect and protect civilians and humanitarian personnel, to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, and to ensure the freedom of navigation in international waters. Yet it appears that they bombed the Freedom Flotilla’s ship Conscience off the coast of Malta on May 2, 2025. This was almost exactly fifteen years after Israeli forces assaulted the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters, killing 10 civilian volunteers aboard the Mavi Marmara and injuring dozens more.

No one has or is holding Israel to account for its crimes. But no one is holding the United States to account for its role either.

Americans pay for and supply the planes, bombs, and other materiel that have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and have demolished all aspects of life in Gaza – from destroying every university, to damaging every hospital, infrastructure and more than 100,000 housing units.

The American government is also complicit in the starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza. Our government has allowed – and even facilitated – humanitarian aid to be a negotiable item despite it being a war crime to limit humanitarian aid. The Biden and Trump administrations have vetoed all ceasefire resolutions in the UN Security Council except for one we made sure was non-binding. And we have welcomed Prime Minister Netanyahu to the United States despite there being a warrant out for his arrest for war crimes.

It is up to us to stop the bloodshed and starvation. It is up to us to hold our government accountable. It is up to us to make our elected officials look in the mirror. We need to tell our representatives, senators and the administration that we hold them accountable for crimes the US supports and protects. We need to tell our legislators that enough is enough; they are not acting in our name and do not represent our values. And we need to do that vocally in public and throughout our communities.

And in this time when Madleen is sailing towards Gaza to break the illegal and inhumane blockade on Gaza, we need to tell our elected officials that we hold them accountable for the safety of all aboard Madleen.