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James Marc Leas, Substack.
Each of the four boats belonging to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition continues to sail toward Gaza.
Each of the four boats belonging to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) continues to sail toward Gaza. As of this writing, the vessels have completed approximately 10% of their journey since departing from Siracusa, Sicily, at 4:15 PM on Saturday, May 2. Live streaming from each boat allows viewers to track their individual paths, which are constantly updated as they cross the Mediterranean Sea.
Reports from the vessels this morning indicate that the 30 participants are in good health and high spirits, despite encountering some rough seas.
At their current speed, the sailboats are expected to arrive in Gaza in six or seven more days—around May 11 or 12—unless their voyage is attacked by Israeli armed forces, which would constitute a violation of the Law of the Sea. The relevant provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea were detailed in the article, “Israeli Attack on Flotilla Violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.” That article describes how heavily armed Israeli forces illegally seized 22 of the boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) on April 29, while they were sailing in international waters approximately 80 nautical miles west of Crete. During that operation, Israeli forces kidnapped 180 GSF participants. The state-sponsored pirates later released all but two of those captives—GSF leaders Thiago Avila and Saif Abu Keshek.
The mission: to break the illegal US-Israeli siege of Gaza
Both the GSF and FFC sailboats are on a mission to break the illegal Israeli-US siege of Gaza. The boats carry no arms, and all participants are trained in nonviolent resistance. The missions are legal and peaceful, launched in response to the Palestinians’ call for solidarity. They uphold human rights and seek to put a stop to the illegal and immoral US-Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The siege itself is what is illegal: it is collective punishment against the entire civilian population of Gaza, half of whom are children, in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention. The broader objective of the flotilla campaign is to dismantle the US and Western systems that assault and murder indigenous Palestinians with impunity. It is the perpetrators of the siege, not the human-rights supporters on the sailboats, who must be held accountable.
Detained GSF activist Thiago Ávila, who has been subjected to appalling brutality by Israeli authorities since he was kidnapped on April 29 and brought to Israel, dictated the following poignant letter to his baby daughter via his lawyer:
Dear Teresa,
I’m sorry I’m not at home with you right now.
Unfortunately, your father, your mother, and so many people around the world have understood the historic task that we have the responsibility to carry out.
Today, more than a million children are suffering a genocide: they are left to die of hunger, undergo amputations without anesthesia, and endure the pain of horrible, hate-filled ideas, even though they don’t know what Zionism and imperialism are.
I’m sure you miss me terribly; all the mothers and fathers of Palestinian children feel their absence terribly too, and they would give anything to live a life filled with love, happiness, and joy — the kind every human being deserves, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, or any other characteristic.
Your world will be safer because so many parents have decided to give everything to build a better future for you.
I hope that one day you can understand that, precisely because I love you so much, there was nothing more dangerous for you and for other children than living in a world that accepts genocide.
Please remember your father as the person who sang to you and played the guitar to lull you to sleep. And when you grow up, your mother will also tell you that your father was a revolutionary and that, even in the face of the world’s most terrible people — Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Itamar Ben-Gvir — he stood firm in his conviction to build a better world.
Please, never forget Palestine.
With all my love.
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