Climate justice activists, First Nations participants, an ‘anti-zionist Jewish activist’, writer Clem Ford and at least two Northern Rivers representatives were included in Aussie crew announced as part of a mission to Gaza next month.
The Australian Delegation of the Global Sumud Flotilla last week released the names of what they said was the ‘first wave’ of Australians due to set sail to Gaza in late March 2026.
Anny Mokotow, Sam Woripa Watson, Clementine Ford, Surya McEwen, Juliet Lamont, Zack Schofield and Jayden Kitchener-Waters were named in the release.
Surya McEwan and Juliet Lamont were at least two members to come from the Northern Rivers and to have crewed in the last flotilla last year, with Mr McEwan having participated in three flotillas.
Juliet Lamont was recently announced as a captain in the first of this year’s missions.
Aussies demand Palestinian-led aid ‘corridor’
The Australian crew were to join thousands of participants from 100 countries, the statement read, trying to ‘break the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza to deliver crucial aid and medicine to Palestinians’.
‘One of the Australian delegation’s demands is the establishment of a Palestinian-led humanitarian corridor to deliver food and medicine,’ supporters said in the statement, ‘and to facilitate the entry of health, legal, engineering, logistics and construction workers to support the people of Gaza’.
Supporters said the Israeli government had banned Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Save the Children, and more than 30 other aid organisations from operating in Gaza as of January, and medical evacuations had ended.
The Flotilla was to sail from various ports around the Mediterranean from late March 2026 onwards, with donations being sought online.
Controversial writer to join expanded Aussie Gaza flotilla crew
Crew member Zack Schofield, also a member of climate activist group Rising Tide, said this year’s first delegation of Australians was much larger than last year’s.
Meanwhile, more than three-quarters of the population of Gaza was facing acute hunger and malnutrition according to the UN, Mr Schofield stated in the release.
Aside from the two Northern Rivers crew members mentioned, new participant Clementine Ford was likely a familiar name to many.
The former regular writer for mainstream media was also a published author, and in recent years a well-known outspoken social media agitator, largely in the realms of feminism and activism in support of Palestinians suffering in Gaza.
Ms Ford was quoted in the release saying she was no different to the mothers in Gaza.
‘I know what it is to love a child the same way Palestinian parents do,’ she said.
Jewish and First Nations activists unite
Crew member Anny Mokotow was described as a Jewish activist was said she was joining the Flotilla because she couldn’t ‘stand by while Palestinian children die from starvation, homes and hospitals are bombed, and aid is blocked’.
‘As a child of Holocaust survivors, I believe “never again” means for everyone,’ Ms Mokotow was quoted saying.
‘When governments fail, ordinary citizens must act to bring food, medicine, and hope to the most vulnerable,’ she said.
Wangerriburrah and Birri Gubba community activist and film maker Sam Woripa Watson was quoted saying First Nations people knew what colonial violence looked like.
‘Land theft and erasure,’ Mr Watson said, ‘Palestinians are facing that same violence now’.
‘Let Palestinians live. Let aid flow. Cut ties with Israel,’ Mr Watson said.
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