Denouncing the blockade, defending humanity

Despite the misunderstandings often voiced with instrumental intent in the political debate in Italy, the flotilla's action was not conceived as a mission to deliver humanitarian aid. Its organizers have repeatedly made this clear: its deeper purpose was to make the blockade imposed on the people of Gaza, and the denial of their access to humanitarian assistance, starkly visible and undeniable. The arrest of participants in international waters constitutes an abuse.

People and organizations with different sensibilities and cultural backgrounds can legitimately debate and even disagree on the practical choices involved: how far to go in challenging the blockade; where to draw the line beyond which human lives should not be risked; how to balance powerful testimony with responsibility. These are complex questions. They may lead to different answers, all of which deserve respect.
Yet on one point, civil society in all its diversity generally finds common ground: support for the political act of making visible a blockade that tramples on the most basic principles of humanity. A blockade that denies a civilian population the right to survive—undermining the very essence of humanitarian aid, which should be unconditional and guaranteed in all circumstances. In this context, the commitment recently reaffirmed by the Italian government on the issue of humanitarian assistance must translate into concrete action: promoting directly and with European support the immediate suspension of bombings and the opening of genuine humanitarian corridors. These must be land crossings, the only routes capable of ensuring safe and continuous aid flows.

For this reason, beyond any specific assessments of tools and methods, we feel it is our duty to express full solidarity with an initiative that has rightly brought the issue of humanitarian access to Gaza back to the centre of international attention not as a logistical matter, but as a deeply political one.
We are convinced that only a civil society capable of bringing these contradictions to light can contribute, together with all parties who believe in peace, to building the conditions of dignity, justice and humanity without which no future will be possible.

Link 2007 Cooperazione in rete
CISP is part of the Link 2007 network