{:en}{:en}{:en}{:en}{:en}{:en}{:en}The US-led “sea corridor” to Gaza and the current “temporary pier” proposal are cynical distractions from US complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide, including the deliberate starvation of over 2 million Palestinian civilians. The US and its allies continue to arm and support Israel’s bombardment, displacement and denial of the necessities of life of Palestinian people in Gaza and they refuse to exert the political pressure necessary to compel Israel to end its aggression. The humanitarian needs in Gaza are enormous, but delivery of aid is not primarily a logistics problem. Proven channels for delivering aid to Gaza exist, but Israel has all but shut them down — long lines of aid trucks have been waiting at the Rafah crossing for months. The «banned» items which Israel uses as excuses to reject entire shipments include anaesthetics and birthing medical equipment. Emergency amputations and Caesarean sections are being endured without anaesthesia in Gaza. Rather than continuing to arm Israeli aggression against Gaza, the US must pressure Israel to comply with international law, end its siege and allow in all necessary shipments at the same rate as before October 2023 — at least 500 truckloads per day.
Israeli control of boat inspections in Cyprus will not improve the prospects of Palestinians in Gaza receiving the aid they need, particularly with Israel controlling the very process it is obstructing by land. We have seen the Israeli blockade outsourced to European ports before and we know that compliant European states simply reinforce Israeli control over Palestinian lives.
Public relations measures like air drops are clearly insufficient, and sometimes lethal. A sea corridor and temporary pier controlled by the US with aid inspected by Israel are at best distractions from the ongoing genocide, and the lack of political will to end it.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is readying ships to carry thousands of tons of aid, and civilians from around the world, to challenge Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza. We refuse the premise that Israel — the very entity that stands accused of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people — should have any control or say over what aid is allowed to enter the besieged Gaza Strip. We will sail from international waters into Palestinian territorial waters with humanitarian aid that Gaza desperately needs, and also with a message of global solidarity with Palestinians’ right to be free.