Dear America- PLEASE SCORN VIOLENCE and stop arming Israel with lethal weaponry plus dumb excuses to cause cruel harm to others!

Dear America (letter I just wrote & sent to my elected leaders),

Israel's attack today on Iran is yet another PR extravaganza for Zionist propagandists on American news claiming the targets were military and this was a "preemptive" strike against Iran. 

REALITY CHECK: Israel, fully funded and armed by The West, fuels religious extremism and escalating violence all through out the Middle East.

Please start noticing the very real plight of the Palestinians has been caused by sovereign Israel's racist refusal to respect international law, including but not limited to every refugee's inalienable right to return to original homes and lands. Israel was founded in 1948. Newly formed Israel could have chosen a path of peace, but it did the opposite, choosing state sponsored terrorism and injustice.

There would have been no need for UNWRA had Israel respected international humanitarian laws which were established in response to the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust: Zionism's crimes against the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine began long before HAMAS's evil attacks of Oct 7th 2023, and long before HAMAS was created in the 1980s.

PLEASE SCORN VIOLENCE and stop arming Israel with lethal weaponry plus dumb excuses to cause cruel harm to others! 

Yesterday The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding an immediate & permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution also demands full, rapid, safe & unhindered humanitarian access in Gaza & the immediate release of all hostages... Today Israel bombs Iran.

And Israel's propagandists are out in full force, seeking to convince our elected leaders to lead America further and further astray.

FYI the joint Israel-American GHF 'aid' for Gaza is the most inefficient and inept way to get food to starving children. It is not charity or genuine humanitarian aid but a weapon of war to destroy UNWRA and the United Nations so that Israel can more freely starve and/or kill  civilians...and take more and more land and resources every where and in every way it can, including from America.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

What Gaza Needs Now- My family is starving. My neighbors are dying. I’m compelled to share these injustices because they need to stop. Mosab Abu Toha June 12, 2025 in The New Yorker: "For the G.H.F.’s efforts to be called humanitarian, they would need to reach every city, town, and refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. They would need to deliver nutritious food to mothers, children, and sick people every day. They would need to take place far from any soldiers and weapons."

Israeli attacks on educational, religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, UN Commission says

Reporter: “Why do you think so many countries and governments around the world are just ignoring what’s happening in Gaza?” Greta Thunberg: “Because of racism.”

The European Union, the United Nations, and all signatories to the Geneva Conventions must now answer: Will you uphold the laws you claim to defend, or will you look away while one of your own is disappeared at sea?

Compare the courage of Greta Thunberg’s Gaza aid mission with the inaction and complicity of western governments- The Madleen is no ‘selfie yacht’. It is a symbol of human compassion in a world that has decided to look away

Madleen Kolab of Palestine, became known as the first and youngest professional fisherwoman in the Gaza Strip... Freedom Flotilla's ship 'Madleen' headed to Gaza - humanitarian aid and nonviolent action STOPPED by Israel

3 Maps: Gaza Strip Blockade before Oct. 7, 2023 + Permanently Staffed Israeli Checkpoints and Crossings in the West Bank by 2010 + In 2002, Israel started constructing a land grabbing Apartheid wall, slicing through Palestinian communities, agricultural fields, and farmland

The real reason why Israel is arming gangs in Gaza: The Israeli government is intentionally creating chaos in Gaza to justify its colonial rule... "If the world continues to look away, it’s not only Palestine that will be destroyed – it’s the very credibility of international law, human rights and every moral principle we claim to stand for.""

Arts & Culture Rescuing the Memory: Gaza's Archaeological Treasures Between Exile and Resilience... The exhibit “Treasures Saved from Gaza – 5,000 Years of History,” organized by the Institut de Monde Arab (IMA) in Paris, constitutes a major cultural event in many respects. It not only highlights an exceptional archaeological heritage but also speaks to the necessity to protect cultural heritage in conflict zones through the example of Gaza, an emblematic region both by its history and the trials it is going through today.

Palestinian Christian woman of Lydda, Palestine 1923

Antisemitic and Islamophobic violence is rising in the United States. Both must stop: We have a duty to call out antisemitism when we see it. We also have an equal duty to remember that Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims are also being targeted

Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights defender: Our lives are blighted by illegal settlements, and 22 more have just been approved. Unless Israel is held to account, we will be erased

Letter from Gaza: The Nakba We Are Living Through "I have now become a refugee twice over: once from our historic village of Barbara, and now from Jabaliya." Hamza M.Salha Jun 02, 2025

Let's use the best tool we have: EDUCATION against ignorance, prejudice, hatred, genocide

More journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza than in most major wars combined.

Gaza’s endangered heritage: 5,000 years of history at risk amid conflict

The MATH of modern GENOCIDE & the US weapons industry.

"The Holocaust did not start with gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed from words, stereotypes, and prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanisation and escalatin violence" Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau

Building a Culture of Peace ...

"The United Nations was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." ~Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations

My more recent Letters

Dear America- We should be supporting the people's needs, not state sponsored terrorism and the intentional starvation and torture of children.

Thank you NPR, for the compassionate listen into Palestinian life, trauma, and suffering that I heard on my car radio Saturday May 31, 2025 on WITF radio in Central Pennsylvania

This Earth Day please start noticing how much pollution and injustice war creates.

Tragedies abound here on planet earth, but at least we can try to make our world a better, more fair, just and secure place for more people.

Dear America- Racist times created hell on earth for "others" then, we really should know better now...

Funding religious extremists and charlatans is a recipe for disaster.

Dear America- Please do not let this tragic situation became a reason for more people to be treated more unequally, with more Palestinians and Palestinian Americans being doxed, destroyed, and displaced.

Life is not a video game. These are real human beings and American made weaponry has been creating a Holocaust with The Rule of Lawlessness in the Holy Land.

Dear America- Taxpayers' money should not be shoring up greed, corporate corruption, injustice, and war.

Please, let Golden Rule thinking and the rule of fair and just laws guide US all towards a better way forward.

State sponsored violence is not the way to convince vulnerable people to veer away from arming religious tyranny and terrorism.

Criticizing Israel is not Anti-Semitic. Calling for respect for human rights and the rule of fair and just laws is not Anti-Semitic. Countering the poisonous propaganda of a very foreign rogue nation state that interferes with our elections and our free speech is not Anti-Semitic... Americans should not be funding, arming, and/or excusing Israel in any way, shape, or form.

Please stop fueling corporate corruption, WAR, and escalating suffering for countless men, women, and children.

Israel, armed with American made weaponry and political support, invests in religious extremism and sets up families to be canon fodder for religious wars.... Israel claims to be Jewish, but what it really is is a cruel war machine that has been aggressively grabbing land, rights, and peace from the people of historic Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

Hate crimes are escalating here in America with people primed by Zionism to think, say and do horrible things...

Dear America- Don't let American weaponry or words inspire even more religious extremism, terrorism, and state sponsored brutality world-wide

Slavery, Segregation and Forced Displacement are wrong. Wrong then and wrong now.

Please do not demonize and silence or destroy people who speak out peacefully against corruption, injustice, racism, bigotry, and violence of every type.

Frankly every Holocaust Museum on earth should have a wing added explaining the very real plight and suffering of the native non-Jewish Palestinians. 75 years and counting...

America should not help Israel commit crimes against humanity.

Dear America- letter sent to my elected leaders: Please understand that our friend Israel already is a one state "solution" that has been oppressing and intentionally displacing the native non-Jewish Palestinians for decades now.

The best idea is to start with full support for fair and just laws based on full respect for basic human rights.

Dear America- Freedom, justice and peace: These ideals should be our New Year's resolution- for everyone's sake.

Israel and its propagandists claim it is all about self-defense, but Israel is and has been the aggressor and the rule breaker.

Americans should focus on building peace - My letter published online in my local newspaper The Patriot News: "Our domestic and foreign policies should align to shape true justice, peace, and prosperity for all people, regardless of race or religion."

Dear Elected Officials- Stop poisoning the land, and undermining international law.

Silence is Complicity... and silence turns voters off, ensuring that Democracy dies in the darkness.

Our tax money should go to the people's needs- not war mongering and weapons manufacturing for foreign countries that use bigotry and injustice to determine who gets security and who gets their home demolished.

Dear America- We are in this collectively- no exceptions... Stop the hate- and the pollution of war.

Dear America- Don't let Israel drive a wedge between you and the truth.

Dear America, Please Help Stop Institutionalized Bigotry & Injustice

Dear America- Israel can not be trusted, and should not be subsidized

Don't give Israel the power to destroy the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, International Law, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights... and America.

Accusing peaceful pro-Palestine protesters of being "antisemitic" pleases Israel but it does not make any Jews any safer anywhere.

Send an honorable message far and wide- we believe in freedom of and from religion... and we believe in real justice, peace, and security for ALL !

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

What Gaza Needs Now- My family is starving. My neighbors are dying. I’m compelled to share these injustices because they need to stop. Mosab Abu Toha June 12, 2025 in The New Yorker: "For the G.H.F.’s efforts to be called humanitarian, they would need to reach every city, town, and refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. They would need to deliver nutritious food to mothers, children, and sick people every day. They would need to take place far from any soldiers and weapons."

Photograph by Mahmoud Issa / Reuters

What Gaza Needs Now

My family is starving. My neighbors are dying. I’m compelled to share these injustices because they need to stop.

By Mosab Abu Toha

June 12, 2025

On May 15th, from our home in Syracuse, New York, my wife, Maram, and I video-called her family in Beit Lahia, the city in northern Gaza where we both grew up. They were eating a small meal of plain white rice. “That’s the only type of food we’ve had for weeks,” her father, whom I call Uncle Jaleel, said. On a normal day, a similar quantity of rice would have fed about two people, but, for seventy-five days, Israel had not allowed any trucks of food into Gaza. This meal would have to feed Maram’s parents and four of her adult siblings. I could see some plates and a bowl nearby. “They have nothing in them,” Uncle Jaleel said. “We let ourselves imagine there is salad and some chicken and pickles as we chew the rice.”

Often in the past nineteen months, a situation that could hardly get any worse has gotten worse. Late that night, one of my relatives called me and said that explosions in northern Gaza sounded like the end of the world. My relatives could hear screaming, followed by more blasts. Meanwhile, my friend Sabir, who has been sheltering in southern Gaza since October, 2023, missed about ten calls because his phone had been charging. “I felt panic,” he told me. I know the feeling, because I experience it whenever my relatives call me from Gaza. When Sabir returned the calls, he learned that air strikes on his family home had killed his four-year-old nephew and his five-year-old niece. (A spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces said that the I.D.F. was not aware of this strike. When asked about the bombings of my relative’s neighbor’s house, the spokesperson said that the I.D.F. had conducted a strike on “terror infrastructure,” but was unaware of subsequent bombings.)

The final death toll on May 15th was a hundred and forty-three, bringing the total since October 7th to more than fifty-three thousand, according to health officials in Gaza. I can usually tell how bad the violence is based on how many of my loved ones are affected. This time, a former colleague and a friend’s father were among the dead. Many families, including some of my relatives, were forced ... READ MORE https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/what-gaza-needs-now

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Israeli attacks on educational, religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, UN Commission says

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

 

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/06/israeli-attacks-educational-religious-and-cultural-sites-occupied

10 June 2025

GENEVA – Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed over half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip, part of a widespread and relentless assault against the Palestinian people in which Israeli forces have committed war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, said in a new report today.

While the Commission paid special attention to the situation in Gaza, the report focuses on attacks in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole, and in Israel.

“We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,” said Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission. “Israel’s targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination.”

The Commission found that Israel used airstrikes, shelling, burning and controlled demolitions to damage and destroy more than 90 percent of the school and university buildings in Gaza, creating conditions where education for children, including adolescents, and the livelihood of teachers have been made impossible. Over 658,000 children in Gaza have had no schooling for 20 months.

Israeli forces committed war crimes, including directing attacks against civilians and wilful killing, in their attacks on educational facilities that caused civilian casualties. In killing civilians sheltering in schools and religious sites, Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination.

The Commission documented and investigated several cases of burning and demolition of educational facilities by Israeli forces which it concluded were deliberate and unnecessary. Israeli soldiers recorded and distributed videos in which they mock Palestinians and Palestinian education, before destroying schools and universities. The Commission considers such acts as indicative of the Israeli security forces’ intent to destroy these facilities to curtail Palestinians’ access to education in the long-term.

The Commission also found significant evidence that Israeli security forces seized and used educational facilities as military bases or staging areas for military activity, including transforming a part of the Al-Azhar university’s Al-Mughraqa campus to function as a synagogue for the troops. The Commission found one instance where the military wing of Hamas had also used a school for military purposes. Such conduct violates the provision of customary international humanitarian law that requires parties to a conflict to distinguish between civilian objects and military objectives.

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the education system has suffered from increasing military operations by Israeli security forces, the harassment of students, and an increase in checkpoints, demolitions and settler attacks which have affected more than 806,000 Palestinian students. Israel has done little to prevent or prosecute settlers who have intentionally targeted educational facilities and students to terrorise communities and force them to leave their homes.

Israeli authorities have also targeted Israeli and Palestinian educational personnel and students inside Israel who expressed concern or solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza, resulting in their harassment, dismissal or suspension and in some cases humiliating arrests and detention. Israeli authorities have particularly targeted female educators and students, intending to deter women and girls from activism in public places.

“Children in Gaza have lost their childhood. With no education available, they are forced to worry about survival amid attacks, uncertainty, starvation and subhuman living conditions,” said Pillay. “What is particularly disturbing is the widespread nature of the targeting of educational facilities, which has extended well beyond Gaza, impacting all Palestinian children.”

Attacks by Israeli security forces have damaged more than half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip, part of a wider campaign to destroy civilian targets and infrastructure through airstrikes and shelling. Israeli attacks also targeted religious sites that served as places of refuge, killing hundreds of people, including women and children. The Commission concluded that Israeli security forces knew or should have known the locations and significance of Gaza’s prominent cultural sites and should have planned all military operations to ensure no harm.

All ten religious and cultural sites in Gaza investigated by the Commission constituted civilian objects at the time of attack and suffered devastating destruction for which the Commission could not identify a legitimate military need. Artefacts were destroyed, removed or looted.

In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Commission found that Israeli authorities have appropriated, developed and profited from cultural heritage sites representing Palestinian, Jewish and other cultures, displaced Palestinian residents from those sites, and blocked or severely restricted Palestinians from accessing such sites.

In East Jerusalem, frequent militarised incursions, arrests and harassment against worshippers and religious figures in Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount have resulted in severe restrictions of freedom of worship and, on several occasions, ignition of wider conflict. Israeli authorities limited access of Palestinian worshippers to the site while allowing increased access of Jewish worshippers. The Commission emphasises that, while some actions by Israeli security forces at the site may have been linked to security justifications, these should be considered within the broader context of Israel’s illegal occupation, settlement activity and support to settlers, and the erosion of the status quo. Israel’s actions are governed by the law of occupation, the occupying power’s obligation to ensure public order and safety, and international human rights law regarding the use of force, which must be necessary and proportionate.

“Attacks on cultural and religious sites have deeply impacted intangible culture, such as religious and cultural practices, memories and history,” said Pillay. “The targeting and destruction of heritage sites, the limiting of access to those sites in the West Bank and the erasure of their heterogenic history erode Palestinians’ historical ties to the land and weaken their collective identity.”

In its recommendations, the Commission urges the Government of Israel to immediately end attacks targeting cultural, religious and education institutions and seizure and military use of such institutions; immediately end its unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory and cease all settlement plans and activities, including those conducted in or endangering religious and cultural sites; and comply fully with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice.

The Commission calls on the Government of the State of Palestine to ensure the protection, preservation and development of cultural heritage sites, including those representing non-Palestinian heritage, and to safeguard artefacts. The Commission calls on the de-facto authorities in Gaza to cease using civilian objects for military purposes.

The Commission’s report will be presented to the Human Rights Council’s 59^th session on 17 June 2025.  

ENDS

Read the full report here.

Background: The UN Human Rights Council mandated the Commission on 27 May 2021 to “investigate, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021.” Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-30/1 further requested the commission of inquiry to “investigate all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.” The Commission of Inquiry was mandated to report to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly annually commencing from June 2022 and September 2022, respectively. The commissioners were appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council and work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights Office provides support to the Commission of Inquiry, the commissioners serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including the UN. Views or opinions presented herein are solely those of the mandated commissioners.

More information on the work of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, can be found here.

For more information and media requests, please contact: Todd Pitman, Media Adviser for the Human Rights Council’s Investigative Bodies, at todd.pitman@un.org, Cell: +41 76 691 1761, or Pascal Sim, Human Rights Council Media Officer, at simp@un.org.

Follow the Human Rights Council’s Investigative Bodies on Social Media:

X | Facebook | Instagram | Linkedin | Bluesky 

Reporter: “Why do you think so many countries and governments around the world are just ignoring what’s happening in Gaza?” Greta Thunberg: “Because of racism.”

Mike Hanini Odetalla

optensodSrm815914lh7l3l1a94c1hihmuu65ci0am9f25221u63afiach0u  ·

She said out loud what we Palestinans have been screaming for years!

 

It's the racism stupid!

 

Reporter: How did the Israelis treat you, we saw them giving sandwiches?

 

Greta Thunberg: They probably have posted lots of PR stunts, they did an illegal act by kidnapping us in international waters but that’s not the real story here. The real story is the genocide in Gaza and systematic starvation.

 

Reporter: Are you worried about the others?

 

Greta: Yes…I’m calling for everyone who can to mobilize to demand their immediate release and, of course, to demand not only humanitarian aid being let into Gaza but also a ceasefire and most importantly an end to the occupation, an end to the systemic oppression and violence that Palestinians are facing on an everyday basis.

 

Reporter: “Why do you think so many countries and governments around the world are just ignoring what’s happening in Gaza?”

 

Greta Thunberg: “Because of racism.

The European Union, the United Nations, and all signatories to the Geneva Conventions must now answer: Will you uphold the laws you claim to defend, or will you look away while one of your own is disappeared at sea?

@RimaHas   French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament and refugee from 1948, now stands before an Israeli court in al-Ramleh. Israel offered her deportation and a 100-year ban. She refused to sign. She chose prison over submission.

 

The European Union, the United Nations, and all signatories to the Geneva Conventions must now answer: Will you uphold the laws you claim to defend, or will you look away while one of your own is disappeared at sea?

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt

@FranceskAlbs

·@RimaHas , a Member of the @EUparliament is illegally detained by Israel. Seized in international waters while part of a humanitarian convoy, she was taken by the Israeli army to Israel, which she had not tried to enter — and is now deprived of her liberty for refusing to sign a document pledging never to return to the land of her ancestors. This is the essence of Israel’s apartheid: institutionalized anti-Palestinian racism at work. It is also an affront to France, Europe and its institutions, history and all of us.

 

 The Right of Return 

UN Resolution 194 from 1948 "The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so..."

Compare the courage of Greta Thunberg’s Gaza aid mission with the inaction and complicity of western governments- The Madleen is no ‘selfie yacht’. It is a symbol of human compassion in a world that has decided to look away

Greta Thunberg aboard the Madleen when it sailed from Catania, Italy, on 31 May. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

by Owen Jones

Tue 10 Jun 2025 01.00 EDT

Imagine this: over the weekend, Britain – shocked by the scale of suffering in Gaza – decided to bypass international norms and institutions, and used its navy to deliver much-needed food, baby formula and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip’s ports.

This, of course, did not happen. Instead, it was left to activists on the Madleen, including Greta Thunberg, to make a symbolic attempt to break the blockade of aid and raise awareness of a looming “starvation crisis”. In the early hours of Monday morning, the ship was boarded by Israeli soldiers, allegedly in international waters, and the crew were taken to Israeli ports in anticipation of being repatriated. Lawyers for the activists have claimed that this is overreach by the Israeli armed forces, but the crew should consider their treatment light-touch. In 2010, the Israeli military stormed another aid flotilla and killed 10 activists in the process.

Since the news broke, Israel’s propaganda machine has gone into overdrive, dismissing the Madleen as a “selfie yacht”, a line echoed by western media outlets. “There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip – they do not involve Instagram selfies,” declared a shameless Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel knows all about those ways, because it has systematically blocked them.

It’s worth noting that the Freedom Flotilla Coalition – the movement behind the Madleen – was launched in 2010, 13 years before 7 October. The blockade on the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza has been in place for nearly two decades. As an adviser to the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert put it: “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”

In 2012, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a leaked official document in which government officials calculated the minimum number of calories required for a human not to starve. The point: to make life miserable for the people of Gaza without incurring global outrage through mass starvation. A year before 7 October, the World Food Programme warned of the “dire humanitarian situation there”, noting that around half of Gaza’s caged population was “severely food insecure”.

In the past 20 months, Israel has ratcheted up the blockade.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/10/greta-thunberg-gaza-aid-mission-madleen

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Madleen Kolab of Palestine, became known as the first and youngest professional fisherwoman in the Gaza Strip... Freedom Flotilla's ship 'Madleen' headed to Gaza - humanitarian aid and nonviolent action STOPPED by Israel

"Perhaps everyone has heard the story of the ship “Madleen”, which sailed from the island of Sicily heading toward the Gza Strip on a bold mission to break the siege imposed on it. But has anyone asked why the ship was named “Madleen”?

 

The ship was named in honor of a PaIestinian woman from Gaza named Madleen Kolab, who became known as the first and youngest professional fisherwoman in the Strip.

 

Madleen began fishing at an early age to support her family amidst economic and social challenges and the ongoing blockade.

 

Accompanying her father—an experienced fisherman—on his trips from the age of six, from him she learned the basics of the trade, such as swimming, casting nets, and handling boats.

 

At the age of thirteen, her father fell seriously ill, rendering him unable to work. As the eldest daughter, Madleen took on the responsibility of managing the fishing boat and supporting her family.

 

The Gza Strip has been under a severe blockade since 2007, which limited the area fishermen could access to just 3–6 nautical miles (down from 20 pre-2007), drastically reducing the available fish stock and affecting livelihoods. Braving these restrictions at times put her life in danger.

 

In 2016, Israel confiscated her father’s boat and equipment...But Madleen did not give up—she rented an alternative engine to operate a tourist boat and continued fishing.

 

She took full responsibility for supporting her family and her father’s medical treatment.[Because of the restricted fishing area], she would only catch about 3 kilograms of fish daily, which sold for around 30 shekels (about $8 at the time).

 

Despite these heavy responsibilities, Madleen continued her studies alongside her fishing work.

 

Achieving what was an unconventional livelihood for women, Madleen sought to pass on her experience to other girls. She organized workshops to teach girls fishing and net-making, and established a women’s fishing club to support women working at sea and the wives of fishermen, encouraging women to take on this experience.

 

After the outbreak of war on the Strip in October 2023, Madleen lost both her father and her livelihood, compounding her struggles and hardship. 

 

The story of Madleen Kolab embodies the spirit of civil resistance and determination to live...Today, her name sails aboard the ship “Madleen” to shed light on the suffering of our people and to support the effort to break the siege."

 

— Mohammed Al-Fateh [Translated from Arabic]/ H/t Maher Alareer

(Link to a documentary film that tells the story of Madleen Kolab)

https://youtu.be/MCPmudTytcg

 </ p>

#BreakingTheSiege is a legal duty for states, and a moral imperative for all of us.  

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is among the deadliest and most destructive worldwide since World War II: Israel's violence and restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid have created a huge humanitarian crisis in Gaza.  

Freedom Flotilla Coalition

@GazaFFlotilla

·

Jun 3

Listen to some of the #FreedomFlotilla Coalition volunteers share why our nonviolent action is critical, just before they boarded the #Madleen in Catania. Keep track of our vessel and friends as they sail to #Gaza via #MarineTraffic or our website. Tag your Foreign Ministries to ensure that they safeguard the 'Madleen', and end their active participation in Israel's genocide and siege of Gaza. #BreakIsraelsSiege #EndTheBlockade #Madleen #FreedomFlotilla #HuwaidaArraf #GretaThunberg #DrMo #YasmineAcar #ThiagoAvila #IsraelonNotice

Greta Thunberg- Swedish climate and political activist initially known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action to mitigate the effects of climate change aboard 2025's Freedom Flotilla Coalition's Madleen

 

Freedom Flotilla Coalition

@GazaFFlotilla

Campaigning on & off the water to end Israel's illegal Gaza blockade & for freedom of movement 4 all Palestinians

Madleen 2025 ...

The #Governments of the 12 activists that have been kidnapped by #Israelis aboard the #Gaza bound aid ship #FreedomFlottila #Madleen need to demand their immediate release. Stopping this #UK ship in #InternationalWater & stealing everything on board is ILLEGAL. #IsraelIsInsane!

Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

·

5h

Israel is making fun of the world. They are deporting the Madleen crew from Israel as if the crew was heading to Israel. 

 

These individuals were heading to Gaza. 

 

They were in international waters. 

 

To attack the boat at night while carrying guns and to take them to a place they were not heading to is called “kidnapping.” 

 

And to force them to sign deportation documents or go to a detention center? What is this called?