Since April, the Freedom Flotilla has been stuck in Turkey’s Haydarpaşa port. Made up of three ships, and manned by five hundred Palestine solidarity activists from all over the world, it is carrying five thousand tons of humanitarian aid destined for the Palestinian people in Gaza. The Turkish government, succumbing to pressure from Israel and its allies in Europe and the United States, is stopping the ships from setting sail.
There is no legal basis for this decision. In fact, Turkey’s actions put it in direct violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which guarantees the freedom of navigation, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which obliges all participants signatories to ensure that civil society entities are not unduly hindered, burdened, or impeded in peaceful and humanitarian missions. In the current context of genocide in Gaza, and the repeated orders by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), every support possible should be given to those trying to bring urgently needed humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.
Adding insult to injury, the Turkish authorities have now also refused to let another vessel — Ship Conscience — leave on a solidarity tour of European ports and have even threatened to arrest the crew. This situation has been ongoing for over fifty days now, despite the fact that the ship has successfully passed the necessary security checks and complies with all relevant regulations.
Activists were forced to chain themselves to the port on September 4, as a last resort, to stop their evacuation and possible arrest by the Turkish police. Since then, they have initiated a “Freedom Watch” — protecting the boats from police repression and calling on the Turkish state to allow the flotilla to bring urgently needed humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza. Protests have been organised by a coalition of lawyers in Turkey, and activists have recently disrupted a public address by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, demanding that the flotilla be allowed to set sail.
Although the Turkish government rhetorically casts itself on the world stage as an ally of the Palestinian people, the government’s refusal to let the Freedom Flotilla leave the port reveals the difference between their official language and practical action on Palestine.
The delivery of this aid to Gaza is particularly pressing right now considering the ongoing United Nations’ suspension of aid distribution within Gaza, leaving Palestinians utterly alone in the face of Israel’s efforts to starve them and stop them from receiving medical supplies. The situation in Gaza is dire beyond words. In July, a detailed study in the Lancet estimated the combined death toll from direct military assaults, as well as the subsequent famine and rampant spread of disease, at around 186,000.
Israel’s assault on the Palestinians in Gaza has not abated since, and it now seems likely that the victims of Israel’s genocide have surpassed a third of a million. Yet, international humanitarian organisations continue to raise the alarm about their inability to operate in the strip as well as the dramatic shortages of medical supplies, food, and water. The cumulative effects of a nearly year-long genocide, such as the devastation of infrastructure, the inability to take care appropriately of the sick and the dead, and the growing stress on resources, mean that its consequences are increasing exponentially.
Every day that aid fails to reach the strip, the situation continues to worsen further still. It is for this reason that the ICJ — among many other international attempts at holding Israel to account — has twice ordered Israel to let aid enter the strip unhindered. By refusing to let the Freedom Flotilla sail and break the siege, the Turkish state is not only turning itself into an extension of Israel’s murderous genocidal campaign. It is also in direct contravention of its international duty to prevent genocide and stop Israel’s unlawful actions, including the siege and blockade on Gaza.
Unfortunately, the length of time of the current impasse leaves little doubt about the intentions of Erdoğan and his government. Indeed, the situation first came to a head in April, when the Turkish authorities, despite their repeated rhetorical support for the Palestinian people and their denunciations of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, imposed repeated administrative hurdles on the flotilla, forcing it to remain in the port.
At the same time, Israeli and US pressure on Guinea-Bissau — the state under whose jurisdiction the flotilla’s boats were set to sail — led to the vessels’ de-flagging, effectively bringing the whole operation to a halt. Repeated visits from German and US officials to Turkey in this period appear to have been motivated in part by a desire to pressure the country’s government to maintain its refusal. This criminal behaviour is to be expected from Western states who directly fund Israel’s genocidal campaign, all the while giving it diplomatic cover on the international stage. It is, however, deeply worrying that states that present themselves as friends of the Palestinian people would cower to the former’s dictates. Now is not the time for words of support, for thoughts and prayers. Now is the time for decisive and urgent action.
In the words of Beheşti İsmail, a Steering Committee member of the Freedom Flotilla:
As we approach the one-year marker of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, we speak not only to the Turkish government but every member of every political establishment around the globe when we say: any political obstacles placed in our path are walls that must be overcome and torn down. Those who build these walls will not be able to account for their actions before the conscience of the world.
The demand on the Turkish authorities could not be simpler. They are not being asked to take any action nor to claim responsibility for the flotilla. On the contrary. Hundreds of activists from forty different countries have spent much of the last year organising an extraordinary international solidarity effort and are ready to set sail, break the siege, and deliver urgently needed help to the besieged population in Gaza. The situation demands that everyone, every state, every institution, that takes seriously the horrors of genocide take every possible action to bring it to a halt. Not standing in the way of those doing so should be the bare minimum we can expect from those claiming to be the Palestinians’ allies.
Sai Englert, socialist activist and a lecturer at Leiden University.
This article is republished from Jacobin under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
