- The Guardian
- Issue #2176
Last year’s Global Sumud Flotilla was the largest ever Freedom Flotilla Coalition mission. The flotillas seek to break the decades-long siege of Gaza to deliver aid to the Palestinians of the region.
Last year’s flotilla, the third was notable for the dozens of boats involved and the hundreds of participants.
Juliet was one of six Australians on the flotilla, who all arrived back in Australia with stories of the terrible treatment they endured whilst detained in Israel’s Ktzi’ot prison.
Juliet was interviewed as she was about to head to Sicily to join the next FFC mission, which is to set sail in the northern hemisphere spring.
So, can you tell us a little about your first experience, and why, given that fact that you did suffer at the hands of the IDF after you were kidnapped off the high seas, you going back for more?
The first thing that lies at the heart of every humanitarian that goes on that mission is they keep having to centre the reality of Palestinian lives – the lives in occupied Palestine under the Israeli Occupation Forces, which is murder, slaughter, starvation, apartheid, and almost erasure.
Those on the flotilla are ordinary people acting on behalf of their governments who should be acting.
So, when you put it in the context of a white privileged settler on stolen land with the ongoing genocide of First Nations, I feel it’s just a drop in the ocean, the sacrifice that we have to make.
There is a risk. There might be fatalities. But it is also a moral duty. You have to have the moral courage to put your body on the line for the greater good.
All social change has required that sort of stepping up. It feels like a continuation of that social change and that always means that a small group of people will change laws, and that is how it has always been.
If you centre the reality of Palestinian suffering next to your own, you can stay steadfast.
It is not that it is not terrifying. We have to fear that we might cop it a bit this time. The Israeli government, especially post-Bondi, will probably throw the book at the Australian contingent.
You look at how crazy things are with Trump and Venezuela, and the impunity with which Israel breaks every single international law, but they will feel pretty foolhardy when they realise how big this flotilla is.
It is three times bigger this time. So, I reckon they’re going to be butthurt, and who knows what the response will be.
But within the fear, it is the most meaningful, lifechanging experience that I have ever had, and I think I can speak on behalf of all the ordinary people from 46 countries that I met along the way, when saying it is the right thing to do.
You have the moral courage to do the right thing. That is a really inspiring thing.
To get boats ready in a harbour with people you have never met. You get to know them quickly. You are on a common mission.
But every single day, you get closer to an imminent naval blockade, which is the antithesis of that. It is not humanity. It is not love in action. It is pure evil and violence. So, it is a bittersweet experience, but it has to be done. It is complicated but not unmanageable.
I imagine participating in such a flotilla is much different to what you’d expect beforehand.
What would you say you learned about the occupation of the Palestinians and the system that is in place to facilitate the progression of the Israeli settler colonial project by sailing amongst the Global Sumud Flotilla?
When we finally did get to see domestically what the hasbara propaganda unit of the Israeli Zionist colonial project is, it just shows that there has been decades of brainwashing since the establishment of Israel in 1947.
This sort of propaganda enables and bolsters the almost god-given right that they are able to dehumanise Palestinians to the point that they think that they don’t deserve equality of life, and they don’t deserve access to food, liberty and freedom.
Having met IDF soldiers that would be shy of 18, they really do believe they are acting in a righteous manner: they are the chosen people of that land, and the Indigenous Palestinians need to be erased because that is their homeland.
So, you realise the level of indoctrination and brainwashing that facilitates this incredible evil that they are able to enact on a daily basis.
That is frightening. I didn’t expect the level of cultural brainwashing that goes on with people living in Israel. I don’t mean all of them. There are anti-genocide people there, but their media machine doesn’t let the west see that.
That is the most terrifying thing, looking into the eyes of some of those soldiers. They are tapped out and they truly believe Palestinians are lesser and they deserve to be slaughtered, starved, and completely erased.
They are getting closer to enacting that mission and that is terrifying.
