For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.
–Noam Chomsky
As every instance of Israel’s mountain of war crimes became exposed, “release the hostages” became a familiar whine from apologists worldwide. After a while, it also became apparent that defenders of Israel’s murderous onslaught in Gaza were exploiting this pitiful appeal to deflect from the disclosure of yet another atrocity.
As circumstances would have it, the opportunity to make use of the phrase “release the hostages” on perfectly humanitarian grounds has presented itself. However, I’d wager that not many, if any, of Israel’s apologists will be as eager to use the term this time around.
In an attempt to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza, 11 human rights activists, including a journalist, set sail aboard Madleen from Catania, Italy, to deliver humanitarian aid. This was supposed to be the second attempt by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) to provide desperately needed help to Gaza, when the first attempt with the aid ship Conscience was bombed by Israeli drones in international waters off the coast of Malta early in May this year. On board on both occasions was well-known climate activist Greta Thunberg, who survived the first incident along with more than 20 other activists.
Also on board the Madleen Gaza flotilla were activists Rima Hassan (French-Palestinian Member of European Parliament), Yasemin Acar (Germany), Baptiste Andre (France), Thiago Avila (Brazil), Pascal Maurieras (France), Yanis Mhamdi (France), Suayb Ordu (Turkiye), Sergio Toribio (Spain), Marco van Rennes (The Netherlands), Reva Viard (France) and journalist Omar Faiad (French Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent). Actor Liam Cunningham, of Game of Thrones fame, was widely reported to be part of the crew but did not depart with the rest from Italy, although his full support is acknowledged.
I had been following Madleen’s progress using a tracking link from Garmin. As of late yesterday afternoon, I could see that the ship was off the coast of Egypt, very close to its intended destination. I was very apprehensive after the first attack because major world powers like the European Union and the United States did absolutely nothing to rein in Israel, which is flagrantly violating international law with egregious impunity.
I was dismayed to learn this morning that Israel had raided Madleen and had kidnapped all the activists aboard. There is no other way to describe yet another shameless violation of international law in international waters. Video recorded by crew members clearly shows a white chemical substance being dropped on the aid ship from Israeli drones above.
The 12 activists on board Madleen are now effectively hostages of Israel.
Given that Israel pretended for the last 20 months that freeing the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, was justification for their depraved military campaign against the Palestinians, would the world not now be justified to retaliate likewise to free the Madleen crew?
lenny unencumbered 