Freedom Flotilla to sail again with new mission
Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Weeks after Israeli forces abducted the Madleen’s crew in international waters, the Freedom Flotilla is ready to launch its next mission, the Handala.
Only weeks after the crew of the boat Madleen was intercepted and abducted in international waters by Israeli occupation forces, the Freedom Flotilla coalition is preparing to set sail again. The Handala, carrying essential supplies including food and medicines, will begin its voyage from Italy on July 13, with 18 crew members on board, including trade unionists and parliamentarians such as US labor organizer Christian Smalls, French MEP Emma Fourreau, and MP Gabrielle Cathala.
Breaking the siege for Gaza’s children
Michele Borgia, spokesperson for Freedom Flotilla Italy, told Peoples Dispatch that beyond the Flotilla’s consistent message of solidarity with the Palestinian people under siege, this mission has an additional focus: the children of Gaza. Thousands of Palestinian children, including babies, have been killed in Israel’s ongoing attacks, Borgia warned. The ship’s cargo includes baby formula. The name of the ship, Handala, is a reference to the cartoon character who turns his back on the world in protest until Palestine is free.
Since Israel broke the ceasefire in March and imposed a blockade on all humanitarian aid to Gaza, children have starved as formula and food remain out of reach, Borgia continues. “There are also many reports of children and parents being targeted while waiting in line for aid, specifically baby formula.”
Read more: The unbelievable stories about the children of Gaza
When announcing the mission, Freedom Flotilla wrote: “The children of Gaza – who make up over half the population – have been living under a brutal blockade and siege for their entire lives. Since October 2023, over 50,000 have been killed or injured, tens of thousands orphaned, and nearly a million forcibly displaced and homeless. All now face famine, disease, and trauma few of us can imagine. This mission is for them.”
The specific link to Gaza’s children has also prompted a call to action for southern Italy. Puglia was the first in the country to officially support severing ties with Israel, Borgia points out. Now, children from Puglia have been invited to send drawings to children in Gaza. These will be carried aboard the Handala as an additional message of solidarity.
Handala’s political message
Borgia says that the supplies on board the Flotilla’s ships are far from enough to meet the needs of the people in Gaza after months of blockade. “Critics, including Israel, never miss the chance to point out that we’re carrying so little, asking what good it can do,” he said. “But they fail to mention that, for example, last year, when we organized the delivery of thousands of tons of essential supplies, those shipments were blocked too.”
The mission of the Handala, like that of the Madleen and earlier voyages, goes beyond delivering material aid, he adds – it is, in many ways, a political statement. “For years, Israel has undermined Palestinians’ ability to fish or farm,” Borgia said. “This has forced Palestinians in Gaza into complete dependency on aid, with devastating consequences for their sense of dignity and self-sufficiency.”
In this context, as governments remain silent in the face of Israel’s genocide, ongoing occupation and other crimes, Freedom Flotilla aims to break the silence. “Where governments fail, we, the people, are there to act,” Borgia emphasized.
Read more: British parliament votes to ban Palestine Action despite public outcry
Freedom Flotilla Italy has taken an important role in organizing the Handala’s departure, coordinating aspects of technical and logistical preparations. The chapter draws links to Palestine solidarity mobilizations in the early 2000s, including the work of journalist and activist Vittorio Arrigoni, who joined a mission that successfully reached Gaza. “Ever since then, Israel has cracked down on similar missions,” Borgia noted, referencing the violent obstruction of recent sailings, including the Madleen.
Many of the Freedom Flotilla’s crew members are still from Europe and North America. “Israel tends to hesitate a bit more before attacking international activists,” Borgia said. But as the world witnessed with the Madleen, even that doesn’t stop them from kidnapping crews from international waters and subjecting them to abuse. Meanwhile, governments from which the activists originate largely remain silent, including Italy, Borgia says. “Our ministers shake hands with ICC suspect Benjamin Netanyahu, but they say nothing about Palestine.”
Trade unionists on board
He also pointed out that Italian companies like defense giant Leonardo continue arms exports to Israel, despite constitutional prohibitions to do so. Others taking part in the mission have echoed similar critiques. US union leader Christian Smalls announced his participation in the Handala mission together with an appeal for an end to US support for Israel. “It’s not just the government,” he wrote. “Our own US labor union organizations that are supposed to fight for justice are complicit.”
In his statement, Smalls denounced the silence of some major US unions on the genocide in Gaza and urged them to listen to their members. “The killing of innocent people does not go beyond the scope of labor,” Smalls said on social media. “I am calling on US labor to take a stand: shut down all arms shipments to Israel, pass ceasefire resolutions immediately, and get on the right side of history. We will not be intimidated. We will not be silent.”
Read more: Workers in Europe refuse cargo to Israel: “Our solidarity is with the oppressed, not with war criminals”
Across Europe, trade unions are increasingly endorsing pro-Palestinian resolutions under pressure from their rank and file. In many ways, this mirrors the experience of the Freedom Flotilla that Borgia describes: strong grassroots support and growing engagement from communities, met with indifference or hostility from the political class. “But that hasn’t stopped us,” he said. “Many of our core organizers are Palestinian, and when we talk to people in Palestine, they always urge us to keep speaking out.”
As the Handala prepares to set sail, its crew is determined to keep the focus on Gaza. And more ships are being prepared to do the same
Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Owen Jones: On Israel and comparisons with the Nazis
https://www.owenjones.news/p/on-israel-and-comparisons-with-the
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Dave Rich, a professed expert on antisemitism and the Director of Policy at the Community Security Trust (CST), whose stated mission is to protect Jewish security in Britain. They work closely with government and the police, but have been condemned by, amongst others, the Jewish peace movement Na’amod for their vilification of Jewish opponents of Israel’s genocide, alongside anti-genocide protests more broadly.
Confronted with Israel openly committing to a grave war crime, who does Rich reserve his ire for?
The few British politicians condemning the crime.
He’s written an article for the Jewish Chronicle headlined “Pro-Gaza MPs comparing Israel to Nazis brought shame onto Parliament”. That’s because of comparisons between the proposed concentration camp and the Nazis made by two MPs elected on a platform opposing the genocide:
It is hard to think of any more pointed use of Nazi language and imagery than what two Independent MPs, Iqbal Mohamed from Dewsbury and Batley and Adnan Hussain of Blackburn, posted on X this week. Mohamed accused Israel of committing a “holocaust” in Gaza; Hussain posted: “We’re on the concentration camp stage. Gas chambers next?”
How Rich chooses to describe the concentration camp is revealing and deeply disturbing. He writes:
They were responding to news reports that Israel planned to construct a humanitarian zone in Gaza to separate Palestinian civilians from Hamas, and the use of the word “concentrate” in one headline was all it took to open the Nazi-themed floodgates.
Those who engage in atrocity denial receive damning judgements from history, and rightly so. Israel is planning to concentrate the Palestinian population in a camp, where they will be forbidden from leaving. Those who do not oblige will be regarded as legitimate military targets. This is a concentration camp.
The claim that this is a “humanitarian zone” is a perverse, Orwellian upending of the English language. We already know how Israel interprets ‘humanitarian’ given the experience of the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’. In this case, after Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza from 2nd March – an objective, incontrovertible war crime – this Israeli-American front brought in limited amounts of often unusable aid, focused in the south in an attempt to coerce the population into depopulating the north.
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Dozens More ‘I Support Palestine Action’ Protesters Arrested
https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/12/dozens-more-i-support-palestine-action-protesters-arrested
‘We will not be deterred from opposing genocide.’
For the second week running, demonstrators were arrested for holding signs reading ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’ in Parliament Square today, with others expected to take part in later actions across the UK.
Expressing public support for Palestine Action is now a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act following the group’s proscription by home secretary Yvette Cooper. It is the first time anti-terror law, designed to ban groups like Al Qaida and Isis, has been used to designate a domestic, non-violent direct action group a terrorist organisation.
The action, organised by Defend Our Juries, aims to challenge that proscription. Further such actions are set to take place in Bristol, Manchester and Cardiff. An independently organised demonstration is also being held in Derry, and one man took ‘solo action’ by posing with a sign in the market town of Kendal in Cumbria.
Bill, a 76-year-old university lecturer, told Novara Media he was participating in the London action because he disagreed “with this government’s definition of a terrorist”. “I might as well call you a red bell pepper, and now you have all the legal rights of a red bell pepper,” he said. Asked how he felt about the prospect of a charge under the terrorism act, he replied, “it’s all an adventure.”
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Article continues at https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/12/dozens-more-i-support-palestine-action-protesters-arrested
Workers in Europe refuse cargo to Israel: “Our solidarity is with the oppressed, not with war criminals”
Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Worker-led actions to block military and dual-use cargo to Israel continue across Europe, defying government support for occupation and genocide.
A growing number of logistics and transport workers, along with trade unions across Europe, are taking action against military shipments to Israel as it continues its genocide in the Gaza Strip. One of the most recent examples is the refusal by airport workers in Paris, primarily organized by the trade unions SUD Aérien and CGT Roissy, to deal with military cargo destined for Israel.
“As workers in the aviation sector, we categorically refuse to participate, directly or indirectly, in logistical operations that could contribute to the crimes currently being committed in Gaza,” SUD Aérien stated.
Read more: The genocide industry: UN rapporteur exposes over 60 companies complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians
French workers have also called for similar blockades in other locations, expressing their solidarity with Palestinians. “Refusing to transport military equipment to Israel is an act of resistance and dignity with the Palestinian people,” read a joint statement from rail, air, and transport unions in June. “We will not stay silent in the face of the collective punishment of an entire people.”
This is not the first time French transport workers have disrupted shipments to the Israeli occupation. Earlier in June, SUD Aérien called for a boycott of Elbit Systems cargo through the same Paris airport, while dockworkers in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, refused to handle similar freight. Workers’ pressure has escalated to the point that leaders of major union confederations felt compelled to publicly urge the French government to act and prevent similar shipments.
However, prospects for action from President Emmanuel Macron remain slim, so trade unions are instead urging workers to take matters into their own hands by refusing to handle military or dual-use cargo. “No hierarchy, no contract, no silence can justify participation in acts that everyone knows to be unjust or inhumane,” SUD Aérien said. “We call on all workers, unionized or not, to refuse to load this cargo, to assert their right to conscience, and to refuse to be complicit in this policy of death.”
Read more: Israel escalates crackdown on Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement
Similar appeals can be found circulating in Piraeus, the port of Athens, where dockworkers have organized several actions to prevent arms shipments. Their union ENEDEP is now calling for broader mobilization, including students, workers, and community groups, ahead of the expected passage of the ship Ever Golden, bound for Israel. According to ENEDEP, Ever Golden, scheduled to dock in Athens on Monday, July 14, is carrying military-grade steel which will be used in attacks on Palestinians. “This cargo will be used to continue the slaughter of civilians, the bombing of hospitals, schools, children, infants, and women,” the union wrote.
ENEDEP has urged the public to gather at the port Monday morning to demonstrate widespread opposition to Greece’s facilitation of arms transfers. “Our goal is to block the unloading and prevent the transfer of this deadly cargo,” they stated. “We will not stain our hands with blood, we will not become accomplices.”
Read more: Maersk faces growing pressure for supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Efforts to halt arms shipments to Israel are also ongoing in Sweden, Italy, and Britain, among others. In the United Kingdom, workers from various sectors had taken direct action against Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems through the group Palestine Action, recently proscribed by the Labour government. In Sweden, dockworkers previously voted for a full-scale embargo on military equipment to and from Israel.
In Italy, dockworkers in Genoa and the wider membership of the union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) have organized actions to obstruct military cargo – most recently at the airport in Brescia. During that mobilization, USB emphasized that workers continue to repudiate war and highlighted an ongoing campaign to support the right to strike in cases involving the handling of military material, as well as the right to conscientious objection in research institutions, universities, and schools.
Through all these actions, workers are making clear that they reject being made complicit in genocide by employers or governments. “Our job is not to transport war,” SUD Aérien stated, echoing the sentiment of other unions. “Our solidarity is with the oppressed, not with war criminals.”
Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.