Today, hundreds of humanitarian activists received disappointing news in Istanbul, Turkey.
After months of preparations and numerous delays, the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition announced that Guinea-Bissau’s government had withdrawn its flag from two of the three vessels that comprise this year’s emergency flotilla to Gaza.
The effect of Guinea-Bissau’s decision was to strand the flotilla in Turkish waters for an indefinite period of time.
A “true friend of Israel”
Guinea-Bissau’s action was done at the behest of Israel’s genocidal regime.
Last month, the African country’s dictatorial President, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, visited Israel while Israel’s U.S.-supplied bombs rained down on Gaza.
At the conclusion of Embaló’s visit, Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised the strong-man as a “true friend of Israel“.
What next?
Flotilla organizers are now scrambling to find another state that is willing to flag the orphaned vessels. Organizers are weighing other options as well.
Time and again, the Freedom Flotilla’s organizers have proven themselves highly adept at navigating the treacherous waters of Israeli subterfuge. They have vowed to rise to this newest challenge.
Yet, every delay serves only to prolong the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population. The flotilla’s 5,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid would have provided Palestinians with indispensable and urgently needed relief.
Guinea-Bissau makes a mockery of the Genocide Convention
As I explain in my on-the-ground report from Istanbul, Article 1 of the Genocide Convention (to which Guinea-Bissau became a party in 2013) obliges Guinea-Bissau to take active measures to prevent genocide when there is a material risk that genocide is happening.
As a result of the ICJ’s historic decision in South Africa’s genocide claim against Israel, there’s no doubt that such a risk exists in Gaza.
By impeding the delivery of 5,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s civilian population, Guinea-Bissau’s government is flouting its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
You can watch and listen to my report from Istanbul here:
I cannot help but notice the extreme beauty of the evening, with the chanting in the background, as if we were told, just as one of the participants said, to keep faith and hope.