Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za
3-minute read
27 September 2025 | 11:30 CAT

📸 “All eyes on the flotilla, all eyes on Gaza.” The Global Sumud Flotilla challenges Israel’s unlawful blockade, demanding safe passage for humanitarian aid and an end to what legal experts call a genocidal siege.

Calls for urgent international intervention are intensifying as legal experts warn that Israel’s blockade of Gaza is both unlawful and genocidal. Speaking on Radio Islam International, South African Jewish Activist and Attorney, Jo Bluen, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla’s legal support unit named after journalist Shireen Abu Akhle, said the siege “has no legal basis under any framework of international law.”

“The blockade itself is unlawful and illegal under jus cogens norms, under treaty law, under customary international law. That includes the law of the sea,” Bluen stressed. “Even if it were lawful, which it is not, the San Remo Manual makes it clear that once a blockade deprives people of food and medicine, humanitarian aid must be allowed through. Breaching the siege is not only legitimate, it is a legal duty.”

The flotilla, described as the largest civilian maritime mission yet to challenge the blockade, was subjected to drone strikes in Tunisian waters earlier this month, targeting aid ships flagged by Portugal and the UK. Bluen called these incidents “terrorist violence” aimed at incapacitating volunteers: “Israel is committing terrorist activity and then calling those who are simply delivering aid ‘terrorists’ is a key moment in the playbook.”

She welcomed the recent decision by Spain, Italy and Greece to deploy naval vessels for protection but criticised the delay. “It is absolutely a negligent abandonment of Palestine that this hasn’t happened sooner. We laud the states, but it was ordinary people through general strikes and mass mobilisation who forced governments to act.”

Addressing the risks, Bluen praised activists’ courage: “Their tenacity, their focus is remarkable. When we say ‘all eyes on the flotilla,’ they remind us: all eyes on Gaza, where drones wipe out entire residential buildings.”

The principle of Sumud (steadfastness), she explained, underpins the mission: “It’s a daily act of defiance in the face of occupation like harvesting olives under threat or rebuilding homes knowing they may be bulldozed again. Like the waves, it keeps coming, always present.”

Bluen dismissed the two-state solution as a mechanism for further dispossession. “We need an end to genocide and the entire colonial structure. The Nakba is not over it is ongoing. Recognition alone is pathetic at best, dangerous at worst. We need sanctions, a halt to arms and coal trade, and an end to complicity.”

Her message closed on a note of certainty: “We must know that we will see a free Palestine in our lifetime, from the river to the sea. In’Sha’Allah.”

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Annisa Essack and Jo Bluen.