The following article by Dianne Kirby was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
THE Global Sumud Flotilla, the Thousand Madleens to Gaza, and the Freedom Flotilla Coalition represent a civilian maritime challenge not simply to Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza, but the complicity of the West and its allies in genocide and oppression. The deeper goal, forging a durable chain, a global network of solidarity, connecting ports, unions, cities, and movements to support the Palestinian people’s struggle, equally embodies a wider war for liberation and justice. Freedom Flotilla Italia, with its ‘100 Ports, 100 Cities’ campaign, combines the sailboat Ghassan Kanafani with a mobile caravan that travels from port to inland towns.
The mission of the organizers is ‘to build a solid and lasting network to stand alongside the Palestinian people and put the liberation of Palestine at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism and the world powers that enrich themselves through war and unrestrained capitalism at the expense of all of us.’ US sanctions, imposed without evidence on four flotilla volunteers, brands the humanitarian enterprise pro-terrorist, pro-Hamas, proclaiming a threat to the existing order. US Sanctions legitimize Israeli violence, telling the watching world America’s required responses.
In International Waters and Ashdod, flotilla volunteers encountered raw Israeli extremism, from IDF ranks to ministerial level. The vicious aggression included close-range rubber bullets, tasers, broken bones, and sexual degradation, including rape. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a convicted racist and advocate for hanging Palestinian prisoners, gloatingly and grotesquely mocked and humiliated already assaulted and traumatised flotilla abductees, flaunting his contempt for international law and the right of resistance.
Irish flotilla activists returned to a Dublin where during their publicised ordeal the Dáil voted against legislation to impose sanctions aimed at prohibiting all trade, investment, financial dealings and state-linked economic activity with Israel. While 61% of Irish people support full sanctions on the Occupied Territories, Ireland’s entire economic model reflects embedded complicity in imperialist war economies. Dependency even. Previously, Claire Cronin when US ambassador to Ireland, warned the Tánaiste of’ ‘consequences’ should Ireland enact the OTB. Leading Irish civil servants informed ministers that the OTB would be an act of ‘economic terrorism.’
Spanish flotilla activists returned to violent assaults from the Ertzaintza, Basque autonomous police, at Bilbao Airport. Ertzaintza has deep, historical procurement pipelines, commercial contracts, and tactical training ties with Israeli private security firms. Extending far beyond Spanish government positions on Palestine, the institutional reality contradicts political rhetoric. Ertzaintza is part of a global security ecosystem that equates dissent, especially Palestinian solidarity, with terrorism.
Words of solidarity and condemnation from on high, accompanied by paltry action, are meaningless while states continue to profit, as Francesca Albanese has detailed, from occupation and genocide. Albanese equally warns against the ‘Israelization’ of European states that are importing surveillance tools and security doctrines that have been tested and refined in the occupied Palestinian territories for decades.
Entrenched, entangled ties with Israel, in trade and commerce, technology and training, security and surveillance, militarization and weaponization, is global. Not necessarily voluntary. Interventions in Latin America seek to consolidate US hegemony and counter Palestinian solidarity. Notably in Brazil, whose President Lula told the UN Gaza was a genocide, Colombia, which suspended diplomatic relations with Israel, while Chile sought accountability for Israeli actions in international courts. To force a closer regional alignment with Israel, America engages in extensive lobbying, threats against regional leaders, above all, the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Recently, a series of leaked audio recordings divulged Israel’s part in financing the pardon and release of former Honduran president and convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlanda Hernández, exposing US-Israeli efforts to subvert progressive Latin American governments.
Honduras and Israel were close friends and strategic allies during the Hernández presidency from 2014 to 2022, during which a $209 million military cooperation agreement was signed to strengthen the armed forces and increase military participation in public security matters.
Massive demonstrations erupted in the streets of Bilbao following police attacks on flotilla activists. Not all can take to flotillas.
Most can the streets. For freedom, for justice, for Palestine. For a better world.