TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - An activist from Germany who joined the journey of the ship Madleen, Yasemin Acar, stated that she and other volunteers participated in the mission to Gaza because the government in Berlin continues to support Israel's genocide against Palestine.
Acar and her colleagues' journey aims to break the Israeli blockade and send aid supplies to Gaza.
"Bombing hospitals, bombing children, these war crimes we have been watching for 20 months, and this is why we are here. We are here because our governments are not doing this. We are here because our governments are continuing to uphold this genocide, the illegal blockade on Gaza," said Yasemin Acar in a video uploaded to her Instagram account on Sunday night, June 8, 2025.
"We are very close to Gaza, and I have taken down the videos that I've posted previously (about sounding an alarm). We all did that due to the fact that we are safe…the interception has not taken place."
As reported by Anadolu, Acar explained that the aid ship is very close to the Gaza coast. She also mentioned that four Israeli ships had been surrounding the aid ship, two of them were 200 meters from Madleen.
"This has never happened before in the past eight days, so this was why we sounded the alarm again," she said.
"There are many lights around us, and two vessels I'm looking at right now, I will try to show you these two. The other two have left, but these two, one of them has a platform."
"They stopped, they stopped their engine, and they're not moving. We have reason to believe that this is psychological warfare and they have planned this," she said.
Acar stated that this mission is not about rescuing Palestinian citizens, but to show solidarity with them.
"Palestinians will free themselves," she said.
"We are just here in solidarity—to tell them they are not alone, that we will use our bodies, our solidarity and everything we have to challenge this illegal blockade and end the starvation."
Acar referred to the ship as "a small fraction of the global uprising." She urged everyone to pressure their respective governments to stop sending weapons to Israel.
"This cannot go on," she said. "This is not a world we should want to live in, and it’s not the world we should leave behind to our children."
Acar emphasized that Palestinian children in Gaza have the same rights as other children, the right to live, be free, and grow with dignity.
She urged the world community not to remain silent. According to Acar, the real task is to stop the government from sending weapons to Israel.
A total of 12 people are on the Madleen ship, including 11 activists and one journalist.
Among them are Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, Yasemin Acar from Germany, Baptiste Andre, Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi, and Reva Viard from France, Thiago Avila from Brazil, Suayb Ordu from Turkey, Sergio Toribio from Spain, Marco van Rennes from the Netherlands and Omar Faiad; an Al Jazeera journalist, also from France.
The 18-meter Madleen departed from Porto di San Giovanni li Cuti in Catania, Italy, on June 1 as part of the latest mission organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. The civil society initiative aims to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza and send humanitarian aid.
Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, had previously threatened the Freedom Flotilla, announcing that he instructed the Israeli military to "do whatever is necessary" to prevent Madleen from reaching the Gaza coast.
Israeli military spokesperson, Effie Defrin, also stated in a press conference that preparations were being made to take action against the aid ship heading to the Palestinians suffering from starvation in Gaza under Israel's bombing.
Previously, the Conscience ship, organized by the Freedom Flotilla Foundation (FFF)-an initiative formed by various campaigns and movements from around the world aimed at ending Israel's attacks on Gaza- was attacked by unmanned aerial vehicles off the coast of Malta on May 2.
Editor's Choice: Gaza-Bound Aid Ship Madleen Seized by Israeli Military; Activists to be Deported
Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
