Some of the people currently aboard the "Madleen" flotilla—which departed from the Italian port of Catania on June 1 and is expected to arrive off the coast of Gaza on June 7 in an effort to "break the blockade and deliver basic goods to Gaza residents"—were already familiar faces. I met several of them about a month ago at the Kalkara Marina in Valletta. Around 40 volunteers from various countries were waiting to join the previous flotilla, which was halted in Maltese territorial waters after a drone strike damaged the vessel and forced it to stop.
Activist on the flotilla to Gaza, alongside Greta: "A drone passed over us"
(Video: Instagram)
Just three days into the current voyage from Sicily, activists claimed once again to have spotted a drone circling overhead—this time approximately 80 kilometers from Greece—and said that "everyone is on high alert."
Previously, the group boarded speedboats, reached the edge of Maltese Coast Guard jurisdiction, shouted “Free Palestine,” and returned to shore. Many were convinced that Israel was responsible for the attack, and in fact most of them blamed Israel for everything bad happening in the world. It was a group seething with antisemitism—people who hate Israel more than they love Palestinians.
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The Madleen flotilla ship heading for Gaza
(Photo: Salvatore Cavalli Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via Reuters)
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Activists on board the Madleen flotilla
(Photo: Salvatore Cavalli Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via Reuterss)
One activist from Belgium told me, “If Israel didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be problems in the world.” A Brazilian participant declared, “We won’t stop until the world knows that Israel is committing ethnic cleansing, genocide and crimes against humanity. And then we’ll continue until every Palestinian refugee returns home.”
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Twelve individuals are participating in the current flotilla, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg; French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan; German activist Yasemin Acar, French participants Baptiste André, Omar Faiad, Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi, and Reva Viard; Turkish national Suayb Ordu; Spanish activist Sergio Toribio; Brazilian Thiago Avila, and Dutch participant Marco van Rennes.
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Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on board the Madleen
(Photo: Salvatore Cavalli Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via Reuters)
While on the surface the group appears to be driven by humanitarian motives such as delivering basic goods to Gaza, reports from the German outlet Bild suggest that at least some among them hold deeply anti-Western, pro-terrorist ideologies and seek the destruction of Israel.
Consider Omar Faiad, a journalist with the Qatari propaganda network Al Jazeera. Just days after the October 7 massacre, Faiad equated IDF soldiers with Nazis, writing that “Israel is carrying out a new Holocaust in Gaza.” European Parliament member Rima Hassan blamed Israel for the deaths of Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Kfir and Ariel, falsely claiming they were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Yasemin Acar, a veteran Berlin activist, has repeatedly expressed her hatred for Israel, Jews, Zionism and even German authorities. During Iran’s missile attack on Israel, she posted a video showing her dancing joyfully in her kitchen. In one protest, she was filmed altering a sign from “Destroy Hamas” to “Destroy Zionism,” and in another, she was caught yelling at a woman confronting her, “You’re a white woman—you don’t get to tell us what to do.”
Thiago Avila may be the most extreme example of the flotilla’s underlying agenda. In February, he attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, describing it as “a great honor” to be present. He referred to Nasrallah as a “martyred saint and beloved leader who inspired people across the globe, and a historic figure in the anti-colonial struggle.”