The Freedom Flotilla Coalition rejects the double standard and hypocrisy of the violent response to Yemeni Armed Forces’ actions in the Red Sea by the Biden Administration and its allies.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and other civil society groups have sent dozens of boats towards Gaza since 2010. All of those boats that approached Gaza since 2009, were hijacked in international waters and taken to an Israeli port against the will of all the passengers and crew. Ten passengers, including an American, were killed by Israeli state pirates who took control of the Mavi Marmara in 2010. As recently as 2018, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition had two boats pirated by the Israeli military and taken to Ashdod in Israel against the wishes of those on board. Passengers and crew, including Americans, were assaulted and their personal possessions, as well as the boats, were taken from them illegally. In all these cases, the US did nothing to defend innocent maritime passage through international waters.
Even when Israel attacked the USS Liberty in 1967 and killed 34 American sailors and wounded another 174 the US did little – the US Congress has yet to do a full investigation on the Israeli attack on a US Navy ship and crew.
After Israel has killed more than 26,000 people in Gaza (a count that rises daily) since early October 2023, including more than 10,000 children, and turned Gaza into a graveyard for children, the US and its allies not only do nothing to stop the massacre and violations of human rights – they continue to provide weapons. The US has vetoed every Security Council resolution calling for a full ceasefire.
And yet shortly after the Yemeni Armed Forces, without killing anyone, attacked ships in the Red Sea which were sailing to or from Israeli ports, to show their solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza who are being massacred, the United States promptly sent missiles and airstrikes to destroy Yemeni people and infrastructure.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition calls on the Biden administration and its allies to stop their active involvement in the massacre and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and instead demands an immediate and full ceasefire. With Israel killing hundreds of Palestinians daily, mostly women and children, the United States and allies have been more concerned and willing to take military action against Yemenis who have attacked a small number of ships sailing to support Israel’s genocide. And unlike the Freedom Flotilla boats, which the United States has never defended or held Israel to account for, the US and UK are defending Israel’s bombing and starvation campaign against the civilian population in Gaza.
We demand that the United States and allies, including the UK, Australia, Canada and other countries, guarantee free sea passage to and from Gaza, as they are enforcing in the Red Sea. We call on the international community to stop attacking Yemen for standing with the Palestinians. The world knows that the US policy arming and protecting Israel’s massacre is not based on international law or humanity – it’s time for President Biden to lead the way in changing these double standards for an unequivocal approach that respects universal human rights.