Attempts to organize an aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip

Overview^[1]

• According to reports, on November 20, 2023, an initiative was launched for 1,000 boats from around the world to gather in Turkey and sail to the Gaza Strip to break the so-called Israeli “siege.” The initial departure date was November 23, 2023, however, so far there has been no report of its sailing. The organizers claimed the flotilla was a response and an act of “civil disobedience” against the “inhumane massacre” Israel was allegedly carrying out in the Gaza Strip, it was a “completely civilian initiative” and their intention was not to break the “siege” on the Strip, but to disable supply lines to Israel for several days. They also claimed that they would strictly observe international rules so as not to give Israel an excuse to attack the boats.
• This is not the only initiative which has been launched for an aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war. For example, according to reports, the Turkish Mavi Marmara^[2] Association announced it was organizing a flotilla to the Gaza Strip of vessels from various countries in response to “Israeli crimes,” adding that the organizers had started a crowdfunding campaign to purchase boats and humanitarian aid supplies for the flotilla.
• On November 22, 2023, Palestinian solidarity organizations and civilian institutions from around the world gathered in Istanbul and announced the launch of the International Campaign to Save Gaza, which included purchasing a number of cargo boats to transfer humanitarian aid to Gaza, and the possibility of purchasing and dispatching small passenger. The stated launch date is December 2023.
• Apparently the flotillas, which are still only in the planning stage, are so far a show of solidarity with the Gaza Strip and it is not clear when they plan to set sail or if they even intend to reach the Gaza coast. Since the Mavi Marmara incident, the organizations involved in sending flotillas have not been able to organize a significantly large flotilla and all their efforts ended in failure, and the boats which did set sail were unable to reach their destination.

Flotilla to the Gaza Strip

• According to reports, on November 20, 2023, an initiative was launched for 1,000 boats from around the world to gather in Turkey and sail to the Gaza Strip to break the so-called Israeli “siege.” They would be small boats with between six and eight people on board, including the crew. According to the organizers, many participants would be accompanied by their families, and the original intention had been to dispatch the flotilla on November 23, 2023.
• Most of the information about the flotilla was made public in an interview given by Volkan Okçuğlu, who is in charge of organizing the Turkish side, who stated he was joining the flotilla with his family (Türkiye Gazetesi website, November 20, 2023):
  • The flotilla’s objective: To disable the naval supply line to Israel for a week or ten days and to protest the “siege” on the Gaza Strip.
  • Participants: Their aim is for 4,500 participants from 40 countries to sail with the flotilla. Most of the participants are from Russia (313 boats) and Spain (104 boats), while only 12 boat owners will be from Turkey. There will be no participation of boats from Arab countries. Volkan Okçuğlu said he was sorry Turkish participation was so small and hoped the number of boats would grow. He also said he was sorry there would be no Arab representation. He claimed the participants included politicians, businessmen, writers, lawyers and academics. He also claimed participants from Europe and the United States had invested an average of $14,000 to join, adding that “thousands of people” wanted to join the flotilla, including many women. He said that they were negotiating renting or purchasing additional boats.
  • Route: According to the organizers, the boats will sail from Turkey to Cyprus to load supplies, and from there continue to Israel’s Ashdod Port. According to the organizers, Israel cannot prevent them from sailing in international waters, and the first thing it can do is to communicate a warning to them. , Following that, it has the right to search and withdraw. Israel has no authority in Palestinian territorial waters except to tow them to ports in Israel and impose fines. However, he claimed, Israel would pay a high price for trying to prevent such a large international “peacekeeping fleet” from reaching its destination.

• • Assessment of Israel’s response: They are aware of the serious challenges awaiting them, but they do not think Israel will try to repeat the “insanity” of the Mavi Marmara flotilla, since the boats will fly the flags of the United States, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Russia, Germany, Spain, Poland and many other countries, and [allegedly] “not even a knife” will be found on board. He added that Israel had no reason to interfere in international waters, and that once they entered Gaza’s territorial waters, the most Israel could do was to search the boats. He claimed he had held the necessary meetings with the authorities, and had parted with them because “after all, the force against us is Israel.” He claimed that they had calculated all the costs and risks associated with the flotilla, and that they were ready for any possibility.
• A follow-up article on the website claimed the Israeli media had called the flotilla a “dangerous development” and attacked Volkan Okçuoğlu. Asked about Israel’s threats, he claimed Israel had begun various activities to sabotage the initiative, Israel’s threats were worthless compared to the debt [they owed] to those “murdered” in the Gaza Strip, and he had no intention of backing down. He said he was a businessman and did not care if his profits suffered, or he might not be able to reach certain countries on his boat, or if Israel shot him. He claimed he and his wife were risking risked everything and had left their children with friends they trusted (Türkiye Gazetesi website, November 22, 2023).

Preparations

• An examination of Volkan Okçuoğlu’s X account showed several tweets stating he intended to sail his own boat and would be happy if any person or group undertook to organize the initiative. On November 17, 2023, he tweeted it was a completely civilian initiative and that they did not intend to try to break the “siege” on the Strip.
• On November 21, 2023, in reply to a surfer who asked to join the initiative, he said that arrangements were currently being made, they were in contact with international organizations, and they would announce the sailing date during the week. On November 20, he wrote that for the sake of security, he would not tweet any further information. In several replies to surfers, he mentioned Instagram’s private message (DM) function as a method of communicating.
• On November 22-24, he tweeted several times about his participation in loading aid for the Gaza Strip onto a cargo ship sent by the Turkish authorities to Gaza.
• In response to a column written about the initiative by investigative journalist Benny Avni published in the online edition of The New York Sun, on November 25, 2023, Okçuoğlu wrote that the Mavi Marmara and his “protest” were very different and the current protest had no leader since, he claimed, “conscientious people do not need a leader” (Volkan Okçuoğlu’s X account, November 25, 2023).

Other initiatives

• Meanwhile, several other initiatives for sending aid boats to the Gaza Strip have been reported since the beginning of the war. All of them are based in Turkey and Zaher Birawi is involved in all of them. Birawi is a Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood activist from Britain^[3] who is the chairman of the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza, which is a founding member of the Freedom Fleet coalition and who was one of the leaders of the Mavi Marmara flotilla.
• According to reports, the Turkish Mavi Marmara^[4] Association announced the organization of a flotilla to the Gaza Strip of vessels from various countries in response to “Israeli crimes,” adding that the organizers had launched a crowdfunding campaign to purchase boats and supplies for the flotilla. No details were given regarding the date or route of the flotilla, however, the website emphasized that the guiding principle of their activities against the “sea siege” of Gaza would be avoiding violence and carrying out non-violent resistance (flotilla website, November 16, 2023). The association’s offices are located in Istanbul, and it is a member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), an international organization for organizing flotillas to break the “siege” on Gaza, whose main branch is in Washington DC (the association’s website and the Blue Marmara X account, November 15, 2023; freedomflotilla.org, nonviolenceinternational.net).
• An investigation revealed that the flotilla was being organized by Zaher Birawi,^[5] whose International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza was a founding member of the Freedom Fleet Coalition and who was one of the leaders of the Mavi Marmara flotilla (mavimarmara.org, November 8, 2023). On November 14, 2023, he announced the beginning of preparations to “sail again soon to break the ‘siege’ on Gaza and bring urgent humanitarian aid into the Strip,” but apparently the preparations took place during the last month (arabi21 website, November 14, 2023).

     
Right: A poster announcing the flotilla (the association’s website and the Blue Marmara X account, November 15, 2023). Left: The flotilla organizers. Zaher Birawi is fifth from the right in the back row, his hand raised in a V (mavimarmara.org, November 8, 2023)

• On November 22, 2023, dozens of Palestinian solidarity organizations and civilian institutions from around the world gathered in Istanbul and announced the launch of The International Campaign to Save Gaza. The gathering was attended by Arab and international personalities and human rights activists, some of whom had previously worked to dispatch flotillas the Gaza Strip. Among the participants in the gathering were Amer Wahhab, representative of the Algerian Initiative for Aid to Gaza; Firas Ajarameh, chairman of the “Palestine” committee in the Jordanian Parliament; Professor Torstein Dahle, chairman of Boat to Gaza Norway, representing the Freedom Fleet Coalition; and Ismail Songür, chairman of the Turkish Mavi Marmara Association. According to reports, the campaign relies on popular support and funding through fundraising campaigns organized by participating institutions.
• The Freedom Fleet Coalition announced it was joining the campaign and published its founding statement claiming its main goal was to deliver aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip. The campaign announced it would purchase several cargo vessels to transport aid to the Gaza Strip and was also considering purchasing small passenger boats; at the forefront of the campaign’s initiatives was the rapid dispatch of aid boats and medical aid. That would be done in coordination with international parties experienced in supervising aid convoys and humanitarian aid, and in accordance with international laws and regulations governing the provision of aid in times of conflict. The campaign would immediately begin purchasing the necessary assistance according to established procedures for evaluating the required assistance and determining the most effective means of providing it. After that, the aid would be sent to Gaza as quickly as possible.
• The campaign stated that it would spare no effort to ensure that the boats left for Gaza before the end of December 2023. Zaher Birawi, who is also chairman of the campaign’s preparatory committee, claimed the boats would leave from several cities around the world at the end of December 2023 (Orinoco Tribune website, Venezuela, November 26 2023; Freedom Fleet Coalition website, November 24, 2023; arabi21 website, November 24, 2023). Human rights activist Medea Benjamin said the campaign planned to launch three large boats to the Gaza Strip (Medea Benjamin’s X account, November 23, 2023).

    
Right: The gathering to launch the International Campaign to Save Gaza. Left: Zaher Birai speaking (arabi21 website, November 24, 2023)

• In July 2023 there were reports of the Freedom Fleet Coalition initiative to launch the Norwegian boat Handala to raise awareness of the “siege” of the Gaza Strip, increase popular pressure on Israel, and gain support among the public in Europe. (Twitter account of Issam Yusuf, chairman of the Global Popular Authority to Support Gaza and chairman of the Miles of Smiles caravan campaign, July 7, 2023).
• Zaher Birawi said that the boat would sail between several European countries until the end of August 2023, adding that at a later date they would announce whether it would sail to the eastern Mediterranean in order to try again to break the “siege” on the Gaza Strip. However, he said, touring European ports might be sufficient. He stated that the decision would depend on political circumstances, logistical conditions and “influencing factors.” He also stated they were fully aware of the possible results and the difficult path they were treading (Palestine Online, July 10, 2023).
• On May 18, 2023, the Ship to Gaza Norway website reported that after a successful voyage along the coast of Norway in April and May 2023, the Handala was preparing for a voyage to Europe, where it would visit ports in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland and France from mid-June to mid-August. On July 2, 2023, the website of the British “Palestine” Solidarity Campaign (PSC) reported that after visits to Liverpool and Cardiff, the boat would anchor in Bristol between July 10-19, and Southampton between July 21-24, 2023.
•  The boats Europe did not attempt to reach the Gaza Strip.

     
Left: The Handala. Right: Zaher Birawi aboard the boat (Issam Yusuf’s X account, July 7, 2023)

^[1] Click https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en to subscribe and receive the ITIC's daily updates as well as its other publications. ↑
^[2] The Turkish Mavi Marmara led a flotilla of six boats to the Gaza Strip in 2010, organized by the Turkish IHH organization. The IDF prevented them from reaching Gaza and there were violent clashes on board which led to the deaths of ten of the boat's crew. For further information, see the January 2011 report, "Detailed testimony from IDF officers and soldiers, supported by documentation, reveals for the first time the aggressive, brutal fighting carried out by IHH operatives and their accomplices against Israeli forces aboard the Mavi Marmara." ↑
^[3] For more information, see the publication of the Information Center from September 18, 2019: "A Palestinian activist in Britain, who is affiliated with Hamas, admits that the rafts project for the Gaza Strip is not intended to "break the "siege" and deliver humanitarian aid to the Strip, but to promote the intellectual struggle against Israel." ↑
^[4] The Turkish Mavi Marmara was at the head of six boats that sailed to the Gaza Strip in 2010, organized by the Turkish organization IHH, whose entry into the Strip was prevented by the IDF, leading to violent clashes and the death of ten of the boat's crew. See ITIC January 23, 2011 report, "Detailed testimonies of IDF officers and soldiers, revealed for the first time and supported by extensive documentation, illustrate the nature of The offensive and brutal fighting of the IHH activists and their partners on board the "Marmara." ↑
^[5] For more information, see the publication of the Information Center from September 18, 2019: "A Palestinian activist in Britain, who is affiliated with Hamas, admits that the rafts project for the Gaza Strip is not intended to "break the "siege" and deliver humanitarian aid to the Strip, but to promote the intellectual struggle against Israel." ↑

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