Embedded Files
June 11, 2025
On June 9, 2025, the Israeli military violently intercepted the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international water, 185 km off the coast of Gaza. We condemn this unlawful act in the strongest possible terms. The Madleen, carrying baby formula, flour, medical equipment, and water purification supplies, was en route to Gaza to peacefully challenge Israel’s illegal siege and to deliver life-saving aid.
Israeli naval forces used electronic warfare to jam communications and deployed drones to spray an unknown white substance on the deck before boarding the ship by force. The vessel was then seized and towed to Ashdod, and all 12 passengers, which were unarmed civilian activists were kidnapped and detained. This was an act of piracy, executed in international waters, against a civilian mission that posed no threat to Israel’s security.
Eight of the Madleen’s activists refused to sign Israeli deportation papers, rejecting the false premise that they had entered Israel voluntarily. These individuals did not "arrive" in Israel. They were kidnapped from international waters, detained without due process, and denied the right to continue their humanitarian mission.
This is not border enforcement. This is hostage-taking.
The siege of Gaza constitutes collective punishment and violates Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: “No protected person may be punished for any offense [they have] not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.”
The Madleen was the beginning, not the end. Around the world, movements are preparing to send more ships to Gaza in defiance of Israel’s blockade. These flotillas are part of a growing wave of international solidarity that refuses to be silenced. We join the call to multiply these efforts, because justice will not wait, and this genocidal siege cannot be allowed to stand.
To our peers at Carleton University, we urge you to speak out. Silence in the face of injustice is complicity.
The Carleton University administration cannot continue to present itself as an institution committed to human rights while remaining neutral in the face of mass starvation, war crimes, and collective punishment. Our university invests in corporations complicit in the siege, hosts partnerships that reinforce state violence, and fails to provide even basic statements of solidarity when civilian lives are on the line.
We demand better. We demand that Carleton take a stand, cut ties with companies complicit in the occupation, speak out against the blockade of Gaza, and support the rights of students and faculty who engage in humanitarian solidarity. The movement to break the siege is growing, and we expect our institutions to be on the right side of history.
For real-time updates on the Freedom Flotilla and ways to support the mission, please visit the Coalition's official website.
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