In late August 2025, as part of the second flotilla attempt, 42 vessels from the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) sailed towards a besieged Gaza loaded with food and medicine. By 2 October 2025 most boats had been intercepted by Israeli forces, who went on to capture all crew on international waters. One of the last uncaptured vessels, Mikeno (al-Bireh), had on board three Turkish citizens, a German and an Omani. As they sailed alone, thousands of people took to the streets across the world. On the same day in Berlin, I attended an impromptu demonstration at Alexanderplatz in support of the Flotilla. Halfway through it, the organizers streamed a live conversation with the German crew member of Mikeno. He was placid, positive and unafraid, which contrasted with the climate of fear, distrust, and hopelessness of the Berlin cultural scene. In a few hours to go before being captured a mere 9 miles off Gaza's coast, the Mikeno crew ended the live stream by saying that the fact that the flotilla set sail in the first place was an enormous success, regardless of whether they managed to deliver the cargo to Gazans.
Indeed, all the flotilla efforts are a resounding success of historical proportions. The GSF comprised 462 participants from more than 44 countries, making it the largest civilian-led convoy of its kind in history. Under the motto "When Governments Are Silent the People Rise", the flotilla exposed that there are no true democracies in the West, as in October 2025 even the UN reproached Germany for its violent and illegal suppression of Palestinian peaceful solidarity activism. Meanwhile, the majority of Western cultural institutions continued behaving as obedient and complicit arms of the state in how they censor, silence, and punish art practitioners who show solidarity towards the Palestinians or criticise a state and army that the world's top scholars attest to be committing genocide.
Most importantly, the flotilla has shown that there is an alternative to the status quo, to traditional politics, to neoliberalism, and that when ordinary people unite in action, they can change the world. We've seen consumers shunning complicit brands to the point they lose stock market value, canceling subscriptions to find alternatives, and using apps to reveal corporate complicity in genocide. Organizations now provide financial and legal support to those facing repression for their Palestinian solidarity. Artists are rallying to sell artworks for Palestine, and international crowdfunding efforts to support fleeing Palestinians have been widely shared.
This year, the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) issued "Silenced, Not Stopped: A Toolkit for Resisting Censorship". This came shortly after AICA's statement urging Germany to protect artistic freedom while combating antisemitism, warning that current practices risk fostering de facto censorship. Available free online, the 16-page toolkit builds on existing safety guides for artists but is uniquely aimed at art practitioners globally, including the West, offering community-oriented approaches to resistance and mutual support.
Public discourse is also connecting neo-colonial oppression across the Global South, with Palestine, Congo, and Sudan at the frontlines. Israeli billionaires steal from the Congo to build illegal settlements in Palestine, while tech companies illegally extract minerals to power their surveillance of Palestinians. These manufactured conflicts share the same neoliberal dynamic whereby colonial greed plunders the world while we consume - until we ourselves are consumed.
***
On 8 October 2025, I attended the press conference "International Law vs. Staatsräson: Civil Initiatives to Break the Naval Blockade of Gaza" at Spore Haus in Berlin. It featured international law expert Khaled El Mahmoud; criminal defense attorney Benjamin Düsberg; and two of the 14 German citizens who participated in the flotilla: Oyoun director Louna Sbou, and human rights activist Yasemin Acar. Both women were detained until 6 October.
At the conference, Acar clarified the flotilla's objective of exposing Israel's violation of international law - both its blockade of aid to Gaza since 2007 as well as its genocidal maneuvers since 2023. Despite the International Court of Justice recognizing plausible genocide by January 2024, and UN confirmation in September 2025, Germany continues to refuse to protect its own citizens or comply with its international obligations. Acar demands an immediate halt to arms deliveries, sanctions against Israel, and unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza.
El Mahmoud and Düsberg exposed Western governments' hypocritical disdain for the law, explaining how Germany avoided responsibility by issuing travel warnings, how Israel's interception in international waters violates maritime law, and how Germany supports genocide by distinguishing between "weapons of war" and "equipment" supplied to Israel. Still visibly shaken, Sbou detailed how Israeli forces imprisoned her for seven hours in a metal cage with 57 women under the sun and threatened to gas them to death when they shouted for medical assistance. Yet, Sbou's lessons on unity will resonate: "Listen to the most marginalized voices. Take care of yourself, of your body, and that of others," she said.
A few hours later, a ceasefire was announced. So where does that leave us and our collective work towards freedom from impunity, colonialism, and fascism? A good place to start is by continuing to listen to the most marginalized, to Palestinians, and by ignoring the distracting noise of Western governments. As expected, politicians want to fool us into getting "back to business". Germany's chancellor Merz, even claimed that "there's no more reason for Palestinians in Germany to demonstrate." Yet, people are still protesting, as Palestinians have awoken a complacent world to the horrors of the capitalist machine. Polls show most Germans now believe Israel is committing genocide and support recognition of a Palestinian state. Since October 2023, there have been hundreds of Pro-Palestine protests in Berlin, culminating in the largest protest in Germany of more than 150 thousand through the streets of Berlin in late September 2025.
In the meantime, as public opinion shifts, companies have started withdrawing their support for Israel while refusing to pardon the pro-Palestinian staff they punished, and some cultural institutions are attempting to feign amnesia by speaking on the Genocide post-ceasefire while ignoring their previous silencing and gaslighting. But many people refuse to forget. We must focus on the bigger picture - delinking from and dismantling the colonial project.
As I write these words, weeks after the alleged ceasefire, Israel has killed 100 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 230 since the official truce on 10 October 2025. Most of Gaza has been razed to the ground and the illegal occupation is still in full force, while we're encouraged to look away and consume away. This is the "business as usual" (emphasis on business) Western governments and institutions want us to go back to. And this genocide is the unfortunate chance we have to remind ourselves why we must continue to refuse to normalize the institutionalization of violence in our personal and professional lives, today and tomorrow.
//
Cover Image:
Karrabing Film Collective, Night Fishing With Ancestors, 2023. © and courtesy of the artist
