How violent will they be when the flotilla sails again for Gaza – with a message of hope for the Palestinian people? Anything could happen.
Fifteen years ago, in May 2010, I was one of approximately 700 persons that sailed on 7 unarmed civilian ships to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and bring needed food, medicines and materials to Palestinians in Gaza who were suffering under the brutal, inhumane policies enacted by the Israeli government, which included a naval, land and air blockade of Gaza.
These policies included “putting Palestinians on a diet” by reducing the caloric intake of persons living in Gaza by allowing a much reduce number of trucks carrying food into Gaza.
Hard to Predict/Believe the Cruelty of the State of Israel Toward Palestinians
I don’t think 15 years ago, we could have predicted the cruelty of the Israeli government as it now conducts the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians living in the West Bank.
We could not have predicted that the international community would allow the Israeli government to bomb Gaza every day for over 19 months causing over 55,000 deaths, tens of thousands dead under the rubble, hundreds of thousands injured and wounded either physically or psychologically, and the entire 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza having to move over and over again as the Israelis bombed Gaza from North to South, from East to West.
We could not have predicted that even after the genocide became apparent to everyone including those making money from weapons and/or funds for political campaigns, that the United States, Germany and other Western European countries would continue to supply bombs and other military killing munitions to the Israeli government.
Nor could we have predicted that the international community would allow Israel to cut off all food, medicines, water for over 90 days after the brutal bombing of 17 months.
Citizens Telling Our Governments to STOP its Support for Israel Through Support for the Flotillas
Since 2008, 35 unarmed, civilian ships filled with hundreds of activists from around the world have attempted to break the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. In 2008, five small ships actually got into Gaza, the first ships from international waters that had arrived in Gaza in over 40 years.
[Editor’s note: The flotilla movement was begun by Greta Berlin, Paul Larudee, Mary Hughes-Thompson, Sharyn Locke, and Eliza Ernshire. Afterward, Jewish Voice for Peace and some others tried to ‘cancel’ Greta Berlin and Ann wright, despite their heroic and extremely consequential actions.]
Since December 2008 with the 27-day Israeli attack on the people of Gaza called “Operation Cast Lead,” no ships have gotten into Gaza.
Yet we keep sending ships with brave people willing to stand up to Israel and symbolic cargo to end the naval blockade of Gaza.
Israeli Military Increasingly Violent toward Unarmed Civilian Ships-Including BOMBING ships!
Crew and participants on each of the ships that have attempted to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza has been met with some level of violence. After 10 Turkish citizens (including one Turkish American young man) were killed and 50 Turkish citizens wounded fifteen years ago on May 31, 2010, on the large Mavi Marmara ship, crew and participants on other ships have been beaten up, tasered and mistreated on the subsequent ships.
On May 2, 2025, Israeli commandos bombed a Gaza Freedom Flotilla ship called the “Conscience,” so named to remind every person in the world that each is a part of the conscience of the world and they should be doing everything within their power to stop the Israeli genocide, and their government’s complicity.
The May 2, 2025 bombing came directly after an Israeli C-130 aircraft was flown from Israel and circled the European island nation of Malta. The Conscience was anchored in international waters 13 kilometers off Malta.
The Conscience was hit by two explosive devices fired from drones. Crew members report hearing drones around the ship prior to the explosives hitting and seriously damaging the ship.
Several of the 13 crew members and 6 non-crew participants were injured by shrapnel and broken glass caused by the explosives.
Organizers of the Gaza flotilla had planned for 32 participants to join onboard the Conscience later in the morning of May 2. Had the explosive detonated on the ship six hours later, many others could have been injured.
Israel Directs the U.S. to Order Palau to Cancel the Flag and Certification of the Conscience
We know there was much international complicity in the bombing of the Conscience. About 12 hours before the bombing, the small Pacific island nation of Palau, which will receive $890 million from the United States over the next 20 years through the Compact of Free Association, cancelled the flag and certification of the Conscience, giving no reason. The annual income of Palau citizens is $17,000.
I understand that the classified cables will be available soon from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel requesting that at the direction of the State of Israel that the US State Department and White House direct Palau to cancel the flag of the Conscience.
Additionally, the agency we had hired to conduct the transfer of participants from shore to the Conscience reported that they had never received any interest from Maltese government officials on the transfer of persons to ships until the day before the attack on Sunday, May 1, a national holiday in Malta, when the agency was deluged with calls from Maltese officials informing them that the flag and certification of the Conscience had been cancelled…on a Sunday…without explanation of the reason for the cancellation. The US Embassy in Malta no doubt informed the Maltese government of Palau’s cancellation of the flag as soon as it was cancelled at the direction of the US government.
Despite the Possible Israeli Violence toward flotilla ship, another Gaza flotilla ship “Madleen” will sail over the May 31-June 1, 2025 weekend
As organizers of the flotilla, we recognize that Israel has dramatically increased its killing of Palestinians and with the bombing of the Conscience has issued another warning to the worldwide community that if you challenge Israeli policies they will bomb you and the nations from where you come will not care…as they don’t care how many Palestinians Israel has killed.
But despite this warning on May 2, we have many people who are willing to put their lives on the line in hope that their action will spur worldwide condemnation and isolation of Israel and force them to stop the genocide.
Our participants know that the Israeli navy has already made plans on how the Madleen will be stopped.
The history of the Gaza flotilla shows that Israel will shoot from helicopters unarmed civilians standing on the top deck of our ship (Mavi Marmara).
We know Israel will board our ships and beat up and taser Captains, crew and participants. (Marianne, Estelle, Al Awda, Freedom)
And now we know that Israel will bomb our ships. (Conscience)
What’s Next from the Israeli Navy? Nonviolent Stopping of Ships? NO !
Despite having nonviolent means available to stop ships of the flotilla, such as
- damaging the propeller (which they did to two ships in 2011),
- or blocking the forward movement of our ships by putting their ships in front of ours and bringing the ship to a halt and waiting until our ship has to return to a port for water or food,
- or asking NATO ships to stop our ship (and hopefully NATO would take into account international maritime law which Israel does not)…
we are well aware that violence is the Israeli approach to anyone and any vessel challenging their genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Would Israel on Steroids Use Torpedoes Against an Unarmed, Civilian Ship Filled with Activists Challenging a Genocide?
We have no doubts the Israeli military may use other weapons against the flotilla, including torpedoes from submarines. The “order of battle,” or units/equipment used by the Israeli navy in stopping ships from the flotilla has included all classes of naval vessels form large warships, to small boarding boats to submarines, from surveillance aircraft, to drones, to helicopters.
We do not put out of the range of possibilities that the Israeli navy, that has been firing naval artillery guns from their ships into Gaza, might want to give their submarine crews an opportunity to participate in the killings by the Israeli government of Palestinians and activists from around the world.
According to Naval News, Israel’s latest submarine, INS Drakon (‘Dragon’), was launched in Kiel, Germany in 2023 and it shows a significant growth in Israeli submarine capabilities. It has a unique design with a large “sail,” which could be used for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), uncrewed air vehicles (UAVs), loitering munitions such as drones (which may have been used in the attack on the Conscience ship, or even a rescue submersible, as well as for launching a missile.
Join the Departure for the Gaza Flotilla ship “Madleen” in Catania, Sicily May 30, 31st and June 1, 2025
You may think we are crazy, but we have made public the departure of the next wave of the Gaza flotilla sailing to break the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza… in the hope that greater publicity about the mission of the ship might provide some measure of protection…or at least knowledge that the ship is sailing and outrage if anything happens to it.
If you are near Sicily, please join us for the events around the departure of the ship “Madleen” over the weekend of May 30, 31 and June 1. in Porto di San Giovanni li Cuti, just outside of Catania, for solidarity with the Palestinian people in a series of panels, cultural programs, and community gatherings.
Read more about the Freedom Flotilla here.
Track the Madleen here.
Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves. She retired as a Colonel with many awards including the Legion of Merit. She also served as a U.S. diplomat in U.S. Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia and received the Award for Heroism for the evacuation of the U.S. and international community from the civil war in Sierra Leone in 1997. She resigned from the U.S. government in 2003 in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq. She is the co-author of Dissent: Voices of Conscience.
