Canadian Boat to Gaza

In the flotilla’s wake, support grows for Palestine DYLAN PENNER is a long-time peace and justice activist based in Ottawa. A leading member of Independent Jewish Voices, he was a delegate on the Tahrir, the Canadian Boat to Gaza. JAMES CLARK spoke to him about his experience and the impact of the flotilla on the Palestine solidarity movement.

How did the Canadian Boat to Gaza come together, and what were its aims?

The idea started percolating with several participants in the Gaza Freedom March in December 2009. The project formed and began meeting regularly within a matter of weeks following Israel’s fatal attack on the Freedom Flotilla in 2010, which is when I got involved.

Our mission from the outset has been—and remains—to take action where the international community has failed to do so, by breaking the illegal and immoral blockade of Gaza. Everyone involved takes quite seriously our obligation to take a stand for Palestinian human rights. Palestinians in Gaza don’t want charity; they want solidarity in their fight for freedom. And that’s why we often say that our destination is Gaza and our course is the conscience of humanity.

What was the response of the general public? Did you encounter opposition?

There were some in the media who initially scoffed at the idea that we could raise the necessary funds, but they stopped laughing when it became clear we would be sailing. There was the occasional smear campaign, but by and large the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

We fundraised well over our original target of $300,000 and were endorsed by 200 organizations, as well as a large number of individuals.

Support for the Tahrir [the official name of the Canadian Boat to Gaza] in the form of endorsements and donations from labour councils and locals, as well as major unions, such as the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) in Quebec has been an important step forward for Palestine solidarity in the labour movement and creates new opportunities to broaden this support even further.

The political landscape has changed when it comes to Israel and Palestine, and the overwhelming support the Canadian Boat to Gaza has received is proof of that. There is further to go, for example, at the level of Parliament, but the issue of the blockade of Gaza is clearly something that is widely understood and opposed.

Who was on the Canadian boat? How did you prepare for the voyage?

Most of the preparation took place during a full year of planning, strategizing, organizing and fundraising that went into the project. Once in Greece, we had intensive nonviolence training as well as teambuilding and skills-training sessions. A key part of our training was preparing for how we would respond non-violently to being violently boarded by the Israeli military.

Finding the right mix of delegates for the voyage was important, and those who were selected contributed a great deal to the success of the mission. It was really an amazing group of people from coast to coast, including a very strong delegation from Quebec. We also had outstanding delegates from Australia, Belgium, Denmark and Germany, making the Tahrir a truly internationalist boat. Or as Israeli journalist Amira Hass, who was on board with us, puts it: “We’re all Tahririans.”

Delegates on board included former Ardoch Algonquin First Nation Chief Bob Lovelace, a former Belgian Senator, a former Mayor of Copenhagen, as well as doctors, nurses, lawyers, filmmakers, teachers, trade unionists, peace activists and participants in previous flotillas. Delegates included Jews, Muslims and Christians. We also had a range of mainstream and independent media on board from Canada, Russia, Israel and Turkey.

Notably, Sylvia Hale and Vivienne Porzsolt from the Australian delegation went on to join the flytilla and won a significant legal precedent, successfully resisting deportation.

What was it like on the boat? How did you make decisions?

The short answer to both questions is lots of meetings.

For the most part we were actually on land in the tourist town of Agios Nikolaos in Crete, maintaining a low profile as the ABCD Group (for Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark), to minimize the likelihood of the Tahrir being located and sabotaged. But even with our discretion we were very clearly under heavy surveillance from secret service forces. This included being followed (even while swimming at the local beach), photographed and often scrutinized by lip readers at a local patio we began referring to as the Espionage Cafe.

There were six of us from the Canadian Boat to Gaza steering committee, who facilitated the daily discussions of the ABCD Group. Once we had all completed the nonviolence training, our daily meetings covered a broad range of strategies, tactics, possible scenarios and how we would respond to various new developments.

Being on the boat itself was incredibly empowering. Despite the unprecedented economic blackmail of Greece by Israel and its allies, despite the fourth largest military power in the world mobilizing its navy for months (!) in preparation for the flotilla, and despite the one-sided position of the Harper government on this issue—despite all of this, the Tahrir set sail.

Sailing out of the port, given the outsourcing of Israel’s illegal blockade to Greece, it felt like we had, in a sense, broken through the blockade.

What was your experience in Greece, in terms of solidarity and support?

The solidarity from the Greek people was very moving, especially given their own pressing concerns regarding their government selling them out to IMF and World Bank austerity. And yet even in this context, not only were local activists and trade unionists organizing to support us, but we also received tangible support from the local port workers’ union, labour council, local city council, mayor and Member of Parliament. The local MP held a press conference at the Tahrir about how the ports in Greece had become Israel’s ports and that the government should stop blocking the flotilla, “To prove that there is still a democracy in Greece.”

When we were towed back into port, we had legal advice that if we attempted to step off the boat that we would all be arrested. Several dozen local activists staged an all-night sit-it on the dock to make sure we weren’t arrested in the middle of the night. One local woman even brought us her homemade pizza, which reminded me a lot of the local and international solidarity extended to the recent mass protests in Wisconsin.

Even the Greek Coast Guard, when they boarded the Tahrir, were for the most part apologetic about the orders they were carrying out and expressed sympathy for our efforts.

What has been the effect of the flotilla on the Palestine solidarity movement in Canada and around the world? What are the next steps?

It’s important to underscore that the effort has the support of Palestinian civil society, including fifty Palestinian organizations endorsing the Canadian Boat to Gaza.

The flotilla has played an important role in changing the terms of the debate, in no small part by generating thousands of media stories, including lead items on the evening news and front-page newspaper stories, which were for the most part positive. We literally reached millions of people across the globe, and showed the lengths to which Israel and its partners in crime will go to continue breaking the law and violating human rights with impunity.

By making as big a splash as we did with the Tahrir when we left port, we turned the Gaza blockade into front-page news, not just in Canada, but in all the countries from which our delegates had travelled. This was particularly significant for the discourse in Australia, where the issue gets scant attention in the media. The Tahrir, and the Australian delegation, played a key role in changing that. As one commentator noted, our boat didn’t reach Gaza, but we made it around the world anyway.

One of my favourite examples is an article on the flotilla in a major Israeli newspaper mocking Netanyahu’s smear campaign against us. It said the allegations against us were so ridiculous that Netanyahu may as well have been claiming we were attempting to smuggle lasers and dragons.

In terms of next steps, we have now relocated the Tahrir outside of Greece—to a new undisclosed location—and we are preparing to sail again. We are asking for organizations that haven’t endorsed the Canadian Boat to Gaza yet to do so. We are raising funds for various logistical needs and invite people and organizations to donate, to endorse and to help organize the next voyage of the Tahrir.

In the words of Free Gaza Movement co-founder and Audacity of Hope organizer Greta Berlin, while she was visiting the Tahrir: “They can fight us, but they can’t stop us.”
And the good news is we already have a boat.

For more information on the Canadian Boat to Gaza, visit: www.tahrir.ca.