‘I’ve considered the danger’, Surya McEwen told The Echo, speaking of his departure this week to Gaza.
‘But I feel that I will return safely’.
Freedom Flotilla Coalition
McEwen has volunteered on Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s voyage to take 5,500 tonnes of food and medicine to the Palestinian people, in one of the most dangerous war-torn parts of the planet.
Just last week, Australian aid worker, Zomi Frankcom, along with six other people working for the World Central Kitchen charity, were killed by Israeli forces.
‘The screening process to be accepted was rigorous’, McEwen says, ‘and the coalition are very careful of who they allow aboard’.
‘At this stage, it’s possible that I will be the only Australian on the voyage. After arriving in Turkey, there will be three days of intensive training’, he says.
Grassroots people-to-people solidarity
According to freedomflotilla.org, the coalition ‘is a grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement composed of campaigns and initiatives from different parts of the world, working together to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza’.
McEwen has been supported via his chuffed.org fundraiser, which now stands at over $10,000.
‘Part of the goal is to break the siege’, he says.
When asked whether the flotilla is asking Israel’s government for permission, he says ‘No’.
‘However, we will provide a cargo and personnel list and will make it publicly available’.
‘This type of operation has never been done in an active war zone. This makes the risk and necessity accentuated, there has been lots of voyages undertaken by the flotillas, but never at this scale’.
Potential danger
According to his chuffed.org fundraiser, ‘some people ask why I’ve chosen to face the potential danger involved in such a voyage’.
‘Many reasons come to mind. There’s 2.3 million human beings being deliberately starved. I want to bring them food.
‘There’s many hundreds of thousands injured and traumatised and desperate for medicine that’s being deliberately denied them.
‘I want to take them medicine. A genocide is unfolding before our eyes, and our leaders critique it cautiously in public, while providing arms contracts and weapons parts to carry on the carnage in our name. Governments internationally should’ve stepped up and demanded humanitarian aid for the starving, hurting masses of Gaza. But they won’t, so we must’.
For more info visit chuffed.org/project/108870-humanitarian-aid-ship-to-gaza.
Great action. With at least one OZZy as our ambassador channeling the violent siege on Gaza this will help force respective countries to respect life to step up and put sanctions and boycotts on Israel to stop the genocide.
I respected life when asked to cooperate with a few measures recommended by our chief health officials.
A good and brave action, starvation affects the innocent Palestinians as well as those guilty of voting for, or taking up arms with, Hamas to engage in Hamas’s Charter of genocide of the Jews of Israel. Supplies from Turkey – Turkey is engaged in armed genocide of the Kurds in northern Syria, who are desperately trying to establish a Kurdish state on their historical homeland. Turkey has also turned back to Islamic fundamentalism, with the subsequent violent subjigation against progressive women, gays etc. Over the border of Israel in Syria, dominantly Muslim against Muslim violence continues with the death toll to date between 600,000 – 800,000, and millions of war refugees. Since Hitlers defeat (who shared the same Islamist philosophy of killing Jews, gays etc,), Muslims have killed somewhere between 5 and 10 million more other Muslims than non Muslims have. Fanatic Islam is a main source of global genocide. The Hutus of Yemen, have been involved in a 8 year long civil war of Sunni Mulims against Shia Muslims that has left the country in ruins and with mass starvation ( while Iran arms them). And where is Iran held accountable, who is funding and supplying the weapons to Hamas and Irans other armies in the region – no humanitarian funding from them while they supply 100’s of millions of dollars worth of weapons, while Iran executed 850 people this year, including to keep Iranian women repressed and subjigated (as they are in Gaza under Hamas), and with Iran voted by the UN Members to be the Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee. Power to the peacemakers from all sides of this, and all, conflicts. There needs to be a more nuanced input than just calling Israel the agressor
No Ceasefire
Free the Hostages 🇮🇱
Bon Voyage