Tag: politics

Writing was also published via rabble.ca on July 23, 2025, “Reflections from my time on the Handala“, available here.

I spent the past week with the Handala freedom flotilla team. I was planning on supporting and sending off the Handala boat from Siracusa, Italy. Last minute, I was offered the opportunity to join the Handala boat as it sailed from Siracusa, Italy to Gallipoli, Italy. Spending time with the crew and ground team was incredibly inspiring and hopeful. It was the honour of a lifetime and I made memories that I will treasure forever. We held each other in our collective grief, sorrow, and rage for Gaza and for Palestine. We were actively translating this into action and solidarity work for Gaza and for Palestine. 

The Handala is the 37th boat being sent to Gaza organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Boats have been successful in bringing humanitarian aid into Gaza in 2008. Boats have also been violently attacked over the years including the Israeli military illegally boarding a boat in 2010, shooting and executing 10 activists onboard. The boats are a form of nonviolent resistance and international solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, to affirm their right to life, dignity, and self-determination. This action is legal under international law to bring in humanitarian aid with civilian boats through international waters to sovereign Palestinian waters and territory. 

The boats challenge the illegal Israeli siege and blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007, because states and countries have repeatedly failed to act over the years to end the illegal Israeli occupation. The boats bring attention to the complicity and active involvement of our own countries and states in Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the occupation, apartheid, and genocide of Palestinians. The boats bring attention to the right of return for all Palestinians in the diaspora. These boats show what is possible and what is within our power to do. 

When you have privilege in this world, you must use it to at least try to make this world better for everyone, including Palestinians. When we stop trying, that is when we have not only given up on Palestinians, but then we have also given up on our collective humanity and responsibility. When the world allows for the dehumanization and genocide of Palestinians, we affirm their right to life and dignity. I met people who fundamentally know that our lives are not more valuable or precious than a Palestinian’s life in Gaza. This is why people of conscience from around the world have been doing this solidarity work since 2008 to send boats to Gaza. We do this as volunteers, and we all come from all walks of life and corners of the world, offering skills and expertise to do something incredible together. We show what is possible when people are organized and persistent. 

Part of activism work is about making it a sustained and sustainable practice. We all do what we can from where we are. We do what is within our power, and we do everything we can within our power. Having met and befriended the incredible people both in front of and behind the scenes has me hopeful in the face of bearing witness to unimaginable suffering in Gaza as consequence to Zionist settler colonialism and the ongoing Nakba. There are 21 beautiful humans onboard the Handala freedom flotilla sailing to Gaza right now. They are supported by hundreds and thousands of people who have organized tirelessly to make this possible. There are more boats being planned, because if the illegal Israeli siege and blockade on the Gaza Strip remains, there will be people who will challenge it to see the day that Palestine is free.

Also published in rabble.ca on July 9, 2025.

Along with over 4000 other people from 80 different countries, I joined the Global March to Gaza in an attempt to march to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Palestine, to increase international pressure and attention on breaking the siege and blockade of the Gaza Strip.

People from all over the world, including Palestinians from the diaspora, attempted to leave Cairo for Ismailia so we can gather as a group to meet one another and see our people power. With the plan to continue the journey onwards towards Al Arish so we could march onwards to the Rafah border crossing. This was all in solidarity with the Palestinian people who were then experiencing a telecommunications blackout on top of an ongoing famine and genocide that has lasted 21 months at the hands of Israel.

People came to Cairo to do this solidarity work knowing the risks and knowing how important bringing attention to ending the famine and stopping the genocide is. I met people who were prepared in their minds ready to take the risk of dying at the hands of the Egyptian or Israeli military so that they could attempt to bring aid into Gaza.

These people that came to Egypt to participate in this march come from all walks of life, but share this beautiful idea that we are collectively responsible for helping to change the conditions in this world so that they are better for everyone, especially for people who are most oppressed in this current moment and experiencing ongoing genocidal violence.

People were detained and deported for simply being accused of participating in the march. We saw many forms of repression like people being detained with their passports taken, not only at checkpoints but also when people were on their way to a hotel or walking on the street in Ismailia. People were beaten by the authorities and by agitators. People were deported after being questioned. Some people didn’t receive their passports back.

I have seen some messages about how this is not unexpected from Egypt, about how foreigners are naive about Egypt, or simply messages of “I told you so, why even try?”. But here is the thing… We have to try. When we give up and we no longer try to help end a 21-month long genocide using all the ways possible within our power as ordinary citizens of this world, and as people of conscience of this world, what are we really giving up on? We aren’t just giving up on the Palestinian people, but we give up on the idea of shared humanity and collective responsibility in this world.

The social and political context of Egypt is important to understand. There are tens of thousands of political prisoners in Egyptian jails, including students, activists, journalists who have attempted to organize in solidarity with the Palestinian people experiencing genocide by Israel. They have been disappeared by and some are still held by the Egyptian authorities. This is well documented. As is how the Egyptian Hala company has required thousands of dollars from Palestinians leaving Gaza to cross the border. Or even the mistreatment of Palestinian evacuees in Egyptian hospitals who receive substandard care despite being evacuated from Gaza for medical reasons. Or the tens of thousands of Palestinians in Egypt without status and documents to attend work or school. And and and… This is why understanding the role of your privilege as a foreigner to bring attention to the struggle of Palestinians is so crucial and necessary. And to do it in a way that recenters the Palestinian struggle for liberation.

I spent a little over a week in Cairo reconnecting with friends and colleagues who are doing amazing work. There continues to be great work happening on the ground, but nothing feels like enough when the genocide in Gaza continues to intensify.

Daily massacres continue at the “food aid” distribution sites in Gaza coordinated by the Americans and Israelis through the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation”. It is completely undignified the way that scarce food aid is given out, nothing in line with humanitarian principles and practices. The Israeli military are gunning down Palestinians who simply are trying to get food for their starving families and loved ones.

This is why the Tunisian sumoud convoy and the freedom flotillas attempted to bring aid in by land and sea. The international community continues to fail to end famine and stop genocide. This is all preventable. Everyday citizens of the world, volunteers and activists, are taking on the role of attempting to bring aid into Gaza when this should be the role of all states and political leaders in this world. We continue to see remarkable inaction by many states and political leaders, and continued impunity be given to Israel.

My friends who came with me from Ottawa on this trip were detained and held on a bus for over 12 hours – they did nothing wrong, and were simply pulled off the streets for being accused of being a part of the march. What were they sharing on their social media? What was on their minds? It wasn’t their release, nor their wellbeing that was top of mind. It was the genocide and the famine that was and still is continuing in Gaza. That the oppression they were experiencing then pales in comparison to what Palestinians are experiencing every day. I care about their wellbeing deeply, and I am proud of them for their steadfastness and courage to do things despite the risk. To try and to not give up or give into defeatism.

We must keep trying to break the siege, to end the blockade, and to stop the genocide. Gaza is the story, and has always been the story.

Ending genocide is a collective responsibility and a moral duty if we truly believe in shared humanity. That my life is not more valuable than a Palestinian’s life in Gaza. Even if the world sees it in such a way, we refuse to. And in fact, we understand the importance of using the privilege we do hold to put our bodies on the line so that we get closer to a world where Palestinians have their inherent rights to life, dignity, and self-determination respected in this world.

This is why we were doing what we’re doing, and this is why we will continue to keep organizing and mobilizing. Join us.

Although we were unsuccessful in marching to the Rafah border crossing, we were successful in showing the world that people of conscience from all over the world care deeply about Palestinian human rights. We must try to do everything we can within our power to end the famine and stop the genocide. We will continue. We will keep trying. We must keep trying. Until Palestine is free, from the river to the sea.