The genocide in Gaza has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 2023. While governments, parties and organisations worldwide turned away from the truth and ignored or even legitimised the reality of a genocide, an internationalist solidarity movement grew. In a wide variety of forms of action – blockades, university occupations, strikes or mass demonstrations – people organised to put an end to the genocide and the blockade of Gaza. Another form of action, launched as early as 2005 by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, is sailing to Gaza, where humanitarian aid was to be delivered to Gaza by sea. The initiative emerged after the start of the Gaza blockade and was intended to break it by sea across the Mediterranean. In 2025 alone, there were already the Madleen delegation in June and the Handala in July, each consisting of 10–20 activists on one boat.
But as the situation of the people in Gaza deteriorated dramatically and famine was added to the state of war, the Global Sumud Flotilla was launched. It was to send 50 boats with 500 activists, politicians and volunteers on their way to Gaza. This flotilla mission was tackled on a new level. Delegates from all over the world were appointed, backed by a huge solidarity movement. One delegate for the Global Sumud Flotilla was to be our Peoples-Bridge representative Murat Okundu:
Why sail to Gaza?
The fact that capitalist states watched the genocide in Palestine without taking action and repressively persecuted at home those who demanded an end to this genocide led protesters to look for new forms of resistance. Despite all the repression, street protests did not let up and continued to put pressure on states to act.
The fact that some countries are now prepared to recognise Palestine as a state must not be romanticised: this neither removes the existing grievances nor ends the colonisation of Palestine. Nevertheless, this – for the time being symbolic – step is a result of pressure from the masses. The threats of general strikes by Italian dockworkers also had an effect: the fascist Meloni felt compelled to commission two ships to escort the flotilla. The Spanish state also sent a ship that joined the flotilla.
However, when the flotilla reached the “danger zone”, both states withdrew their ships. On the one hand, this clearly shows that the protests and organised strike threats of the masses frighten governments so much that they resort to such measures in order to keep the population quiet for as long as possible.
On the other hand, it is another indication that they have no truly consistent interest in ending the genocide. Some states are making a fortune from arms exports in the context of this genocide.
All these circumstances led to the previously failed attempts to break the illegal blockade of Gaza, in place for 18 years, with a single ship reaching a new level: the largest flotilla action ever organised for this purpose was to be created.
This is one of the largest international solidarity actions of recent decades. Tens of thousands of people applied for a place on the ships.
So I also set off – as a Kurd, that is, as someone for whom colonialism, massacres and expulsions are certainly not unfamiliar – to be able to take part in this international mission.
Following the international 68 movement, the shared suffering of both peoples led into the Lebanese civil war, in which they fought side by side against the Israeli occupying power. In 1982, the first PKK guerrillas fell in Lebanon in resistance to Israel – years before they took up armed struggle against Turkey. They received their military training in the camps of socialist parties such as the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
Today’s relationship between the political leaderships of the two liberation movements is far removed from the reality of those years.
And in order to change this, I wanted to take a step forward, set a sign and show that the suffering of both peoples can only be ended through joint internationalist resistance. Because colonialism is a system supported and protected by imperialist states. They are internationally networked; consequently, the struggle of the oppressed must also be organised internationally.
The first days brought many impressions. What I particularly remember is the solidarity demonstration in Tunisia on the second day of our trip. At first glance, everything seemed like in Germany: colourful participants, diverse slogans, lively atmosphere. But on closer inspection, clear differences became apparent. In Germany, at demonstrations against the genocide in Palestine, we are often under constant police pressure – accompanied by threats, attacks and repression.
In Tunisia, on the other hand, this form of censorship was completely absent. We were able to shout all the usual slogans, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, freely without having to fear batons, pepper spray or detention.
Israel attacked individual ships with drones on two consecutive days – clearly to intimidate people and prevent them from boarding. The very next day, the Global Sumud Flotilla issued a joint press statement: the attacks would not deter them from continuing their mission.
For me and my comrades, these attacks were to be expected in view of Israel’s long history of violence and were therefore not a shock. Israel’s attacks on other countries are nothing new; since 7 October, Syria, Qatar, Iran, Yemen and Lebanon, among others, have been affected. The fact that even the non-violent action of the Global Sumud Flotilla leads to an attack already shows, in my view, the profoundly criminal nature of this state.
Even though my participation in Tunisia failed due to the complications that such a large organisation brings with it and I did not get onto one of the boats, one thing remained unchanged for me: returning meant continuing the commitment to a just world and the end of the genocide from Germany – and not stopping until our peoples are free, from Palestine to Kurdistan.
The success of the action is not only decided only at sea
The goals of the action were obvious from the start. Yet its success was only partly carried by the boats themselves. Without the outcry of peoples and workers worldwide, the political pressure to release the imprisoned activists would have been meaningless. As early as before the ships departed, Italian dockworkers declared: “If we lose contact with the boats for even 20 minutes, we will block Europe.” And indeed, on the night the boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla were hijacked, large-scale protest actions were carried out worldwide. In Italy, ports were blocked, general strikes were called and strikes were also held at several universities. In Germany too, and especially in Berlin, thousands of people took to the streets. On the evening and the day after the hijacking of the Global Sumud Flotilla delegation, there were large protests that were met with severe police repression. On 8 October, after the Conscience and the Global Freedom Flotilla had also been hijacked, thousands of people again took to the streets.
In Berlin, a hunger strike was also started on the day of the arrests. On 4 October, activists from Young Struggle, Zora, Platform of the Voice of Political Prisoners (TSP), Pride Rebellion, Palästina Spricht and Peoples Bridge decided to take action by refusing food. Discussion rounds and vigils were organised around the hunger strike in front of the Foreign Office. A representative of Peoples Bridge was also part of the hunger strike.
In the end, all the volunteers who wanted to bring humanitarian goods to Gaza were released. Although the ships were unable to dock in Gaza, the states were forced to take a stand on Israel’s genocidal policy. The state of Israel itself was once again under greater pressure and knew that the mistreatment of the imprisoned activists would have consequences.
The importance of international solidarity
When the city of Kobanê was liberated in 2015, the world did not look away, and a solidarity movement emerged. This was decisive for the victory. International solidarity meant, of course, pressure exerted on governments in Europe, but it was also an ideological strengthening for the YPG/YPJ forces. The initiative of the Global Sumud Flotilla, the Conscience and the Global Freedom Flotilla, as well as the movement that has gathered behind it, shows a new wave of internationalist solidarity in which the activists on the boats, in connection with activists and workers in all countries, have entered into a unity of action.
In this style – whether in the 68 years in Vietnam, 2015 in Kobanê or from 2023 in Gaza – the fight against occupation and genocide must be waged locally and internationally together. For this reason, we as the Rojava Solidarity Platform have also launched the campaign “From Kobanê to Gaza – Defeat the Occupation”. We are confident that, with the escalating situation in the Middle East and worldwide, further internationalist movements will grow and can also become one.
