{"id":312104,"date":"2026-01-19T12:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=312104"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:22:28","slug":"the-flotillas-to-gaza-are-the-worlds-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/01\/the-flotillas-to-gaza-are-the-worlds-conscience\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flotillas to Gaza Are the World\u2019s Conscience"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Sea Monster – by Mr. Fish<\/p><\/div>\n

The numerous attempts by activists in flotillas, to break the siege on Gaza, are a potent reminder that hope comes through acts of resistance and that we must never accept the status quo.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

15 Jan 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0There will be a new flotilla in April 2026 that will attempt to break the 18-year-old Israeli blockade of Gaza. The mission<\/a> is expected to be the largest maritime action for Palestine to date, involving more than 3,000 activists from 100 countries on 100 boats, including a medical fleet of 1,000 health care workers to deliver 500 tons of life-saving aid, equipment and medical supplies that Israel has blocked from entering Gaza.<\/p>\n

Once again, activists from all over the world will sail toward Gaza in an attempt to end one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet. Once again, their journey will be minutely tracked on social media. Once again, Israeli drones will be sent out in international waters to intercept and attack the boats. Once again, the boats will be boarded by masked, heavily armed Israeli soldiers. Once again, activists will be arrested. Once again, they will be sent to high-security prisons. Once again, they will be physically abused, placed in solitary confinement, insulted, berated, forced to watch Israeli propaganda videos about Oct. 7, or raped<\/a> by Israeli prison guards. Once again, Palestinians, many of whom wait on the beach<\/a> in the hope that the latest flotilla will get through, will see they are not alone. And once again, the world will look away, ignoring its legal mandate<\/a> to intervene to end the genocide, as per Article I of the Genocide Convention.<\/p>\n

And yet, despite the almost certain outcome, the flotillas are imperceptibly chipping away at the Israeli stranglehold on Gaza. They are reminding the world of its moral and legal duty to intervene. They are shaming not only Israel, but the Western governments whose complicity sustains the genocide. They are illustrating that we are not powerless. We can act.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you feel when you watched the flotilla?\u201d I asked the Palestine ambassador to Italy, Mona Abuamara<\/a>, when I joined the Italian dock workers strike in Genoa and national demonstration for Palestine in Rome at the end of November 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike a child,\u201d she answered. \u201cYou know how when you know the end of a movie but you still want it to be different. I kept thinking, \u2018Let it pass. Let it pass.\u2019 As if it could. We knew it wouldn\u2019t. That\u2019s part of the beauty of those people on those boats. They knew they\u2019re not going to be allowed to pass, but they refused to accept the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

I met Thiago \u00c1vila<\/a>, a Brazilian activist, and Swedish activist Greta Thunberg<\/a> early in the morning at the MAAM Museum<\/a> in Rome, its labyrinth of halls, corridors and rooms filled with street art, including a sign that reads, \u201cSpoiler YOU WILL DIE.\u201d Some 200 migrants from various countries live as squatters in the abandoned slaughterhouse and museum. Artworks, including huge, elaborate murals by some of Italy\u2019s best artists, cover the cement walls of the former meat factory. At the entrance, satirizing the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, in huge letters, is the word \u201cFART.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all the years I\u2019ve been an activist, I have, every day, lost more and more hope \u2014 if I even had any \u2014 in the institutions and our so-called leaders, corporations, elected officials, banks, whatever it is, to come to our rescue,\u201d Thunberg said. \u201cThey are the ones who have put us in this situation. The system is not flawed. It is designed to be destructive. It is designed, in my view, to have unequal power structures. It is designed to keep some people oppressed. It is designed to keep nature as a distant, separate entity that is not a part of us in order to exploit it. In order to oppress people, we have to dehumanize them. The only way out is to reclaim power, which is one of the main reasons why I\u2019m here supporting the striking workers<\/a> in Italy. This is such a clear, textbook example of what it looks like when people take back power and show where the real power is.\u201d<\/p>\n

TO CONTINUE READING<\/a> Go to Original – chrishedges.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 Jan 2026 – The numerous attempts by activists in flotillas, to break the siege on Gaza, are a potent reminder that hope comes through acts of resistance and that we must never accept the status quo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":312105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[3287,3729,1559,532,405,1854,101,100,1199,2242,3282,87,865,1029,1966,88,2416,427,3534,2897,880,99,70,965],"class_list":["post-312104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-anti-zionism","tag-ceasefire","tag-collective-punishment","tag-colonialism","tag-colonization","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-famine","tag-freedom-flotilla","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-hamas","tag-hunger","tag-israel","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian-holocaust","tag-sociocide","tag-state-terrorism","tag-structural-violence","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312108,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312104\/revisions\/312108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}