Gaza’s Flotilla and the Fault Lines of Empire

As a new flotilla sets sail to challenge the siege of Gaza, let us examine the racial and imperial fault lines behind this violence, drawing on Pankaj Mishra, Benjamin Moser, and William Dalrymple.

As the Madleen, named after Gaza’s first and only fisherwoman, departed from Sicily on June 1 carrying twelve selfless people from different countries, different lives, and different struggles to break the siege of Gaza, a newly founded and dubious US organisation calling itself the Gaza Humanitarian Fund was busy lining up Palestinians. These were people starved for more than two months, herded behind wired fences, and once again degraded in their humanity.

While the flotilla began to sail, Israeli tanks opened fire on Palestinians waiting for food at two distribution points and killed thirty-two people. Gaza is now designated by the UN as the hungriest place on earth.

By the time the flotilla reached Greek maritime borders on June 4, it was met with a drone reportedly monitoring its movement from Greek territory. In that same time span, Israeli forces had killed ninety-five people…