On the Flotilla to Gaza

Amid ongoing genocide and the deliberate use of starvation as a weapon in Gaza, a flotilla of dozens of vessels is set to sail on August 31 from Spanish ports—with a second wave departing Tunisia on September 4—to deliver humanitarian aid and challenge Israel’s naval blockade. The Global Sumud Flotilla which represents the combined efforts of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the Sumud Convoy, and others, aims to physically challenge a siege now entering its 18th year and an intentional genocide entering its second year, to make clear that Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe is human-made, to expose the complicity of states and institutions (including decades of U.S. military funding and diplomatic cover), and to answer Palestinian calls for concrete international solidarity.

In this interview, Cele Fierro—a leading figure in Argentina’s Movimiento Socialista de los Trabajadores (MST) and the International Socialist League (ISL/LIS) and an elected deputy with the Frente de Izquierda Unidad—discusses why she is joining the newest flotilla and what’s at stake. Conducted for Tempest by Anderson Bean and brian bean, the conversation was translated from Spanish and lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Anderson and brian: Since 2010’s Mavi Marmara—when the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) raided the boat, murdering nine activists—there have been multiple attempts to break the Zionist entity’s blockade by sailing vital aid to Gaza. This year these heroic attempts have increased rapidly and the last two attempts, the Madleen and the Handala, were intercepted in international waters. Can you talk about the upcoming attempt and why you are participating?

Cele: The next mission is the Freedom Flotilla, a global effort which—like the previous ones—has a single goal: to break the humanitarian-aid blockade imposed by the Zionist state, which condemns the Palestinian people not only with bombs but with hunger, health crises, and thirst. Because Zionism’s brutality has escalated, this mission has gained massive support. It’s the largest flotilla in history, setting sail on Sunday, August 31 from Barcelona, with additional boats joining from ports across the Mediterranean—more than 50 in all. Over 28,000 people registered to take part in this global action. The flotilla also matters because it helps break the media blackout that continues to shield the genocidal state. As part of the internationalist work we do as Argentina’s MST and with the International Socialist League, we felt it was essential to be here—both to spread the word and to call more people to take up the Palestinian cause. And in this case, to do so through a humanitarian mission that once again shows who is violating every rule: the Zionist state, which is carrying out ethnic cleansing–a genocide.

Anderson and brian: Can you tell us about yourself and the other participants—who do the crew and participants represent?

Cele: I’m an internationalist socialist activist with Argentina’s MST within the Frente de Izquierda Unidad, the coalition we’re part of, where I’m currently an elected deputy. I’m also a member of the International Socialist League. The Palestinian cause is one of our principles. Every action we’ve taken—especially since October 2023, when the Zionist offensive escalated sharply, (though we’ve denounced it for decades) and this artificial state was imposed—has been crucial. That’s why we insist on returning to the pre-1948 borders and fighting for a single, free, anti-racist, democratic, and, of course, socialist Palestine.

When you see what’s happening—people shot while lining up for food, children killed, hospitals bombed, journalists and rescuers targeted—you do everything in your power. That’s why we’re here on the flotilla. Like me, hundreds of activists are boarding different boats: well-known figures like Greta Thunberg and Thiago Ávila; actors, musicians, and photographers who can help spread the word; and hundreds of doctors, nurses, teachers, and young people who volunteered, like each of us, to be part of this action. Participants come from more than 44 countries. From Latin America, there are comrades from Mexico, Colombia, Belize, Puerto Rico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, and Chile—hopefully I’m not forgetting anyone. I think there’s also a compañera from California. Whether people have traveled to board a boat or are organizing on land, the aim is the same: to show that a strong solidarity movement exists with the Palestinian cause and to truly break this humanitarian-aid blockade that, I repeat, violates every international rule and condemns the Palestinian people to death.

Anderson and brian: What aid are you transporting, and why does Israel see it as so threatening that it has resorted to murder, sabotage, and kidnapping to stop past attempts?

Cele: We’re carrying food and medical supplies. Israel’s biggest fear is that this actually reaches Gaza. That’s why they try to intercept and attack flotillas so far. If the aid got through, it would mean two things. First, it would clearly show that people in Gaza are being denied the essentials they need to live. Second, given what Zionism calls its “final solution,” we see that their aim is a full-scale invasion and the razing of Gaza through ethnic cleansing. In addition, as they’ve stated in parliament, their goal is to move ahead with the annexation of the West Bank. We see it every day. They refuse to let aid pass. For us, it’s important to emphasize that this is a humanitarian mission. The party violating every agreement and international treaty—indeed, with an international arrest warrant for Netanyahu—is the State of Israel. And we have to be prepared for the consequences of trying to break this blockade.

Anderson and brian: What does it signify that the civil disobedience by you and the current Freedom Flotilla participants involves such personal risk—from drone strikes, IOF attacks, and imprisonment—to defy Israel’s genocidal starvation of Gaza and bring what is, in truth, only a symbolic amount of desperately needed aid, while virtually every capitalist state and government has done nothing substantial to relieve the suffering caused by Israel’s genocide?

Cele: The question contains the answer: It shows what could be done—and what governments and states are not doing. It exposes their complicity as the genocide of the 21st century plays out on television. In the hands of activists, public figures, and parliamentarians, this humanitarian action points the way forward and denounces the real perpetrator: the State of Israel, which is using food as a weapon of war in a brutally violent campaign to eliminate the Palestinian people. And it also exposes the complicity of every state that keeps financing Israel or refuses to cut diplomatic and commercial ties with the Zionist state—governments that take no concrete action to end this genocide.

Anderson and brian: What gives you hope and determination as you set sail?

Cele: In recent months this cause has been taken up by many more people around the world. The Palestinian cause has grown internationally. We know it won’t just be the hundreds of us leaving Barcelona on Sunday. We’ll be a million people pushing from the streets, from social media, from everywhere, to help us get through, and above all to break the media and political shield protecting a genocidal state like Israel.

Anderson and brian: Thank you. Is there anything that you’d like to add?

Cele: Only that this must be a cause of humanity as a whole. As socialists and anti-capitalists, we’ll continue to raise it—without calculating whether some sector likes it or not. It is a matter of principle to denounce that genocidal state and a matter of principle to support this struggle and this resistance. It’s essential, and it should allow us to keep building alternatives and unity and to transform not only the places where we live but the world toward a fairer society without exploitation, oppression, or genocides.

---

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”