Convoy: A flotilla will set sail to form part of the protest against Israel’s siege of Gaza. Photo: Tan Safi/Freedom Flotilla Coalition
Nine South Africans will sail next week with the largest civilian flotilla yet to challenge the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Among them is Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela.
This is a South African story as much as a global one and moves the country’s stance against Israel from court papers at the International Court Of Justice (ICJ) to open waters.
The Global Sumud Flotilla is part of the wider Global Movement to Gaza, a coalition of more than 40 countries. The march coordinates land convoys, protests and international campaigns, while the flotilla represents its maritime front — a civilian-led attempt to breach the blockade at sea. Both are bound by the same mission: resisting Israel’s siege through strategic, nonviolent direct action and keeping Gaza on the world’s agenda when governments remain silent.
More than 50 boats from at least 44 countries are taking part and the fleet departs from several ports, with Barcelona being the first leg on 31 August. All vessels will assemble in Tunis and sail together on 4 September under the Global Sumud Flotilla.
“Sumud” means steadfastness in Arabic. The design favours many boats rather than one flagship. Smaller craft mobilise quickly, spread risk and avoid a single point of failure. Crews train in nonviolence and in maritime rules. Manifests are open. Medics and legal observers are on board. Communications are set so that what happens on the water can be seen on land.
The convoy is peaceful, nonviolent and lawful. Cargo is declared and unarmed. Baby formula, antibiotics, bandages, staple foods. The aim is simple — move essentials to people who need them and test whether the blockade will again choke civilian access.
The South African delegation will join crews that include activists, lawyers, doctors, nurses, journalists and human-rights defenders. The presence of familiar international figures, including Greta Thunberg and Mandla Mandela, underlines the visibility of the voyage.
“On 4 September, nine South Africans will join hundreds from around the world on more than 40 boats for a humanitarian mission to break the illegal siege of Gaza,” Mandela said, speaking for the South African delegation.
“Israel is starving and killing the people of Gaza. We are a diverse group of international activists calling for urgent global action to compel Israel to open Gaza’s borders to aid and end its genocide of the Palestinian people. We ask that South Africans of conscience join us.”
Journalist and Seen TV co-founder Yusuf Omar, who lived and worked in South Africa for many years and is a participant on the flotilla, adds the link to the country’s own history against apartheid.
“Many draw inspiration from South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle. The thread is global solidarity. It is people everywhere recognising injustice and acting. People from 40-plus countries are joining us as we deliver food, water, medicine and baby formula, the essentials, to people being deliberately starved,” he said.
That need is immediate. Independent investigators describe how aid was pushed out of reach. Hundreds of community distribution points were dismantled and replaced by four ration sites inside areas designated as active combat.
Since 27 May more than 1 300 people have been killed while trying to reach aid. In July alone 729 people died on that path.
By late August more than 300 Palestinians had died of starvation, including at least 117 children. Announcements for access often came with under an hour’s notice and openings were brief. The average walk was about six kilometres.
The law is clear. Civilians are entitled to food and medicine and those supplies must be allowed through. Starving people is a crime. The ICJ has ordered that aid to Gaza be allowed and not obstructed and has repeated that order as conditions worsened.
At sea, ships may travel freely on the high seas and pass peacefully through coastal waters when they pose no threat. Naval rules also bar any blockade that starves civilians or cuts off essentials. An unarmed aid boat with declared cargo is lawful. Stopping it would be a deliberate act and it would bring legal consequences.
Feroza Mayet, of the South African BDS Coalition, a network of local Palestinian-solidarity organisations, ties this voyage to that legal record and to South Africa’s leadership.
“This effort is closely aligned with the recent provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice in the case of South Africa v Israel (Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip, ICJ, 26 January 2024; subsequent orders of 28 March 2024 and 24 May 2024), which specifically require Israel to take all measures within its power to enable the provision of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza without hindrance,” Mayet said.
“Yet, as South Africa has consistently highlighted in its advocacy before the court and in its leadership role as co-chair and founding member of The Hague Group, Israel has to date failed to comply with these binding measures, and the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza makes clear that we cannot remain silent in the face of such impunity.”
For South Africa this is a historic step. Pretoria argued for humanitarian access in court. South Africans now carry that position onto the water. Tunis places an African port at the centre of a story too often told only from Europe and connects actions planned along African and Mediterranean coasts.
As the fleet forms on 4 September the role of South Africans shifts from statement to stake. If the law matters in Pretoria and in The Hague it should matter on the water.
Whether the boats reach Gaza or are turned back, the country is no longer only making the case. South Africa is on the boat.