South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) reaffirms our wholehearted support for the brave civilian volunteers who have taken to the sea with the goal of breaking the illegal blockade on Gaza as passengers on the Gaza Sumud Flotilla (GSF) amid reports that the Flotilla has been targeted by drones for the third time. “Multiple drones, unidentified objects dropped, communications jammed and explosions heard from a number of boats,” the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) said in a statement. “We are witnessing these psychological operations first-hand, right now, but we will not be intimidated.”
The siege has intensified the levels of famine in the Gaza Strip in occupied Palestine since Israel launched an official starvation campaign on 9th October 2023. In this context, the silence and complicity of the world’s governments is as overwhelming as it is devastating. We note that the failure of states to act is a dereliction not only of their moral obligations but their legal obligations under international law, and we demand accountability and consequences for this. We call on all states globally to reverse course immediately and step up to their duty of guaranteeing the provision of aid to Gaza, and an end to the genocide and illegal occupation of Palestine.
We recall that the use of starvation as a weapon of war is prohibited under international humanitarian law. It is also a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). There is currently an open investigation into the situation in Palestine where arrest warrants for war crimes specifically have been issued for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yo’av Gallant. States are urged to recognise their obligations in this regard. Failure to do so is complicity in genocide, itself a violation of international law.
The Flotilla sees ordinary people of conscience undertaking duties, such as delivering life-saving aid to Gaza, that should have been performed by the international community. The GSF would not need to set sail if governments, globally, were functioning within the law, and citizens should not have to put their lives at risk due to the failures of global governance. We call on all governments to do all within their control to guarantee the safe passage of their citizens aboard the GSF.
Failing to guarantee safe passage and the delivery of aid is also tantamount to a failure of states’ obligations under the Genocide Convention, to prevent and punish genocide wherever it happens. This has been articulated by the world’s leading experts and human rights organisations, and was expressly confirmed on 16 September 2025 in the groundbreaking report of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry into Occupied Palestine.
We therefore urge all states, groupings and people of conscience to pay attention to Paragraph 51 (2) (a) of the 28 March 2024 Order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which requires the ‘unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance’.
As confirmed by the UN, governments must publicly affirm the GSF’s lawful status as a protected humanitarian mission; formally notify Israel that any interference would constitute a breach of international law; provide diplomatic protection and, where necessary, physical accompaniment for those aboard the Flotilla. So far, the overwhelming majority of states have failed to implement these protective measures.
We confirm that any attempts to intercept the delivery of aid are violations of international law as well as a permanent stain on the conscience of humanity. Ongoing attempts to harm or intimidate activists, including through drone attacks on vessels, themselves potential war crimes are part of the barbaric arsenal of Israeli apartheid, state terror, violence and impunity.
We recall that Israeli Minister of National Security Ben Gvir recently threatened to designate the peaceful protestors onboard the Flotilla as terrorists. We remind the genocidal Israeli State and its supporters of the ordinary citizens who fought fascists with deep integrity in resisting the genocidal campaign in the Warsaw Ghetto. These people were also called terrorists by those who sought to silence them and undermine their actions, just as Itamar Ben Gvir has shamefully, dangerously, and criminally done to those who set sail.
Jewish practice has a long-standing tradition of refusing to abide by authoritarian state terrorism. Apartheid states have an equally long-standing tradition of suppressing humanitarian and political action, and of designating those who resist as terrorists, one of the oldest tricks in the fascist playbook. We condemn in the strongest terms the belligerent, unlawful, and illegal pre-emptive justification for the use of force and criminal incarceration of Flotilla activists embedded in this utterance.
We stand with all who will break the siege. We urge all states to be vigilant regarding their obligations to ensure safe passage and the delivery of humanitarian aid.
We hope the world will not continue to fail Gaza as it failed our ancestors in the Nazi Holocaust in Europe. We are watching, and we are mobilising.