Uncategorized

Gaza Flotilla is on the move: Plans to Break the Siege of Gaza

After 17 years of a brutal blockade and 4 months of genocidal assault, including weaponizing basic necessities, Palestinians in Gaza are facing an unprecedented and catastrophic humanitarian crisis. On 26 January 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered provisional measures to protect the Palestinians in Gaza from the plausible risk of genocide. Amongst six strongly worded measures, the ICJ ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”  This decision followed UN Security Council resolutions in November and December 2023 which called for urgent steps to immediately allow “safe, unhindered, and expanded” humanitarian access to Gaza.

Israel’s blatant noncompliance with these orders, and the failure of other governments to pressure the occupying power to comply, motivate us as civil society organisations to take action. 

“It is incumbent upon us to ensure that Palestinians in Gaza receive humanitarian aid”, says Ismail Moola of Palestine Solidarity Alliance, South Africa. “We expect that  the Security Council will enforce the ICJ ruling, but due to the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza we need to act immediately”.

Plans for our Save Gaza Campaign are ongoing, and the FFC calls on the government of Egypt to facilitate the delivery of life-sustaining aid through Rafah into Gaza. FFC’s mission, For the Children of Gaza, led by our boat Handala, will again set sail from Northern Europe to Gaza May 2024.

The FFC gathered in Istanbul to plan these campaigns with representatives from the following organisations: Canadian Boat to Gaza (Canada), US Boat to Gaza (USA), Kia Ora Gaza (Aotearoa, New Zealand), Free Gaza Australia (Australia), Ship to Gaza (Norway), MyCARE (Malaysia), Ship to Gaza (Sweden), Palestine Solidarity Alliance (South Africa), IHH (Türkiye), Rumbo a Gaza (Spanish State), Mavi Marmara Association (Türkiye) and the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza.

“Where our governments fail, we sail” says Karen DeVito of Canadian Boat to Gaza. “We are charting a course to the conscience of humanity,  in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

We call on civil society organisations from around the world who share our values and goals to support and join us. 

For more information, including passenger application, contact one of our spokespersons here

Gaza Flotilla is on the move: Plans to Break the Siege of Gaza Read More »

Join us at All The Walls Must Fall March 25-28, 2022

All the Walls Must Fall

 Please join us in “All The Walls Must Fall Conference”    https://www.allthewallsmustfall.com/

on March 25-28, 2022, to explore the realities, the struggles, and the vision we must mobilize around, so that walls indeed fall, connecting our lives and similarities despite the thousands of miles of distance.

From the US/Mexico border to the borders around Palestine – walls and militarization, dispossession of lands and cultural genocide, brutality and murder, mass detentions and lack of rights, forced migration and criminalization, environmental damage – these and other shared abuses, have all defined these experiences.

All The Walls Must Fall group

Members of US Boats to Gaza at the “All the Walls Must Fall” action.

All The Walls Must Fall 1

Join us at All The Walls Must Fall March 25-28, 2022 Read More »

2020 Freedom Flotilla

Israeli Military Continues Its Killing Spree in Gaza as Freedom Flotilla Gears Up for 2020 Actions

As the Great Return March moves into its 84th week, Israeli snipers continue to fire on participants and people located nearby, killing and maiming civilians. According to the Palestinian news site We Are Not Numbers, “It’s not just their bodies they kill or maim, it’s their dreams. [The video below tells] the story of Alaa al-Dali. Thank you to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition for its support and funding.”

We Are Not Numbers is one of the many projects that benefit from your support of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. And we need your support again as we gear up for another flotilla to Gaza next year. Please see the links below for how you can help.
* * * * *
October 25, 2019 
 
During the 80th Great Return March in Gaza on October 25, Israeli snipers shot 95 Palestinian civilians, including 43 children, a woman, two paramedics and a journalist.
Israeli forces continued to use excessive force against peaceful protesters, wounding 36 civilians with live bullets and shrapnel in addition to other injuries in the upper body due to direct targeting with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters. Thousands of civilians took part in this week’s peaceful protests entitled: “For our Prisoners in Israeli Jails and al-Aqsa Mosque,” raising the Palestinian flag and chanting national slogans.
 
For more than a decade, Israel and Egypt have blockaded the Gaza Strip, by land, air and sea. For most of that decade, the US Boat to Gaza Campaign has been sailing with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, in solidarity with Palestine to break the illegal blockade of Gaza. During Gaza’s Great March of Return, Israeli forces have killed at least 267 people and wounded nearly 15,000 more. Gaza will very soon be uninhabitable. Innocent women, children and men will soon have even less access to clean drinking water, food and other essentials of life. Our governments remain complicit in this crime.
 
*  *  *  *  *
 
We Need Your Support
 
The situation in Gaza is unimaginable to most North Americans. Lack of clean drinking water affects almost two million people. The effects of trauma on this population, including those who have been protesting during the Great March of Return, are immeasurable.
 
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla will sail again in the summer of 2020 to break the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and bring international attention to the bravery of the Palestinians who participate in the Great Return March.

This year, as we plan for our 2020 Flotilla, we are focusing on children and youth in Gaza. We will be reaching out to individuals and organizations who can help us raise awareness about this human-made humanitarian crisis and our responsibility for it. And, as always, we will be holding our government accountable for their complicity in Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.

 
Our work is not finished and we all need to continue until Palestine is free. 
Together, we can help end the blockade!
 
 * * * * *
 
TSHIRTS!!

Contact Kit Kittredge at marnykit@gmail.com: $20 + $5 postage.

Men’s M-L-XL crew neck, regular  Heather grey
Women’s S-M-L  V-neck, shorter sleeves, lighter weight, ash grey
 

* * * * *

2020 will be the  tenth anniversary of the brutal Israeli attack on the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla where Israeli commandos executed ten passengers and wounded fifty on the Mavi Marmara and attacked passengers on the five other boats in the Flotilla which were sailing together to break the illegal blockade of Gaza.
 
Please donate
 
Our fiscal sponsor is Nonviolence International, 501(c)(3), tax ID 52-164578. Donations can be made here or checks can be mailed to:
2020 Boats to Gaza
c/o Nonviolence International
4000 Albemarle Street, NW, Suite 401
Washington, DC 20016
Follow our campaigns:
Twitter @GazaFFlotilla
Facebook: Freedom Flotilla Coalition
Instagram: gazafreedomflotilla

2020 Freedom Flotilla Read More »