Despite risks, I had no choice but to join the Flotilla

Upside of helping end the genocide makes the danger and risk worthwhile

- REAAZ MOOLA

THE WRITER is on a small boat with about a dozen other humanitarian activists somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. They are headed - along with about 40 other boats - to Gaza

(File)

WHEN you read this message, I will be on a small boat with about a dozen other humanitarian activists somewhere in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. We are headed - along with about 40 other boats to Gaza, an enclave where Israel is currently carrying out a genocide of the Palestinian people while imposing a near-total blockade of food and medication.

This is a peaceful mission by hundreds of people of diverse backgrounds from all over the world. Our aim is to break the siege and establish a humanitarian corridor into Gaza by sea. Our aim is to ensure the people of Gaza eat.

While killing hundreds of thousands of people and demolishing the entire enclave, Israel is also currently starving about two million people in Gaza. This is now officially a famine according to the United Nations, a famine engineered by the Israeli regime, which hopes to kill or expel the entire population to realise Trump's illegal plan of building a "Riviera of the Middle East" for his billionaire buddies.

Their plan must be stopped.

For the past two years, millions of people worldwide have been working hard to end the blockade and stop the genocide.

We have been protesting, marching, cycling and even hiking for Gaza. We have organised seminars at universities, panel discussions on Zoom, and photography exhibitions. We have published detailed reports on the situation in Gaza and written countless op-eds for newspapers just like this one.