Canadians plan to sail to Gaza despite detention risks

Canadians are preparing to sail to Gaza with an aid flotilla, despite expectations of interception and detention by Israeli forces

Canadians are planning to sail to Gaza again as part of a flotilla that aims to deliver aid and break a nearly 20-year naval blockade months after six Canadians were detained by Israel for attempting a similar mission.

Safa Chebbi, spokesperson for the Canadian arm of the Global Sumud Flotilla, said more than 100 boats and 3,000 participants from around the globe are set to depart from Spanish and Italian ports on April 12, bound for Gaza.

Chebbi said health-care workers, journalists and builders hoping to provide aid and help in Gazan reconstruction efforts will sail on the fleet of ships, along with medicine and other life-saving supplies.

Hanging over the planned sailing is the possibility the boats will be intercepted by Israeli forces and passengers detained, as has been the case for dozens of ships in the past two decades, with none reaching Gaza since 2008.

Last fall, Israel took more than 400 activists, including Greta Thunberg and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, into custody during the first sailing of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Shortly after, six Canadians sailing in the Freedom Flotilla, which has been attempting to land ships in Gaza since 2010, were also detained before being deported back to Canada.

This year, the Freedom Flotilla has joined with the Global Sumud Flotilla for a joint sailing, says Ehad Lotayef, one of the founders of the Freedom Flotilla’s Canadian branch.

Lotayef spoke of detentions as a near foregone conclusion for the spring sailing. The Montreal poet said he experienced it himself in 2011, when he and other activists were held in Israel for a week after attempting to sail to Gaza.

“We are not trying to be martyrs, but we are also not ignorant to the realities,” he said, noting that participants receive training to prepare them for possible violence if they are taken into custody.