If not for Israel’s manufactured famine and blockade, humanitarians wouldn’t be sailing into danger Dear Email, Israeli warships are approaching the Global Sumud flotilla as it attempts to deliver desperately needed food, water, and medicine to Gaza. Governments, including the U.S., must act now to prevent another violent interception and to protect the lives of humanitarian volunteers aboard. This flotilla is a multinational humanitarian effort; people from dozens of countries, including the U.S., are on board exercising their right to deliver lifesaving aid to a population under an internationally condemned blockade. Palestinians are being deliberately starved through a man-made famine engineered by Israel’s ongoing siege. Entire families are barely surviving on animal feed, weeds, and contaminated water, while children waste away from preventable hunger and dehydration. Any attempt to stop or seize these ships is not just an attack on the activists volunteering, but an extension of the same policy of collective punishment that is strangling Gaza. Intercepting the flotilla will risk civilian lives and obstruct desperately needed food and medicine.  Israel has a long record of intercepting Gaza-bound aid ships, most infamously on May 31, 2010, when Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara, killing nine civilians, including 19-year-old American citizen Furkan Doğan, who was shot five times while filming with his camera, and fatally injuring a tenth, who later died. Dozens more were wounded, many by live fire at close range. We call on all governments with nationals on the flotilla to publicly demand safe passage and position naval or diplomatic assets to protect their citizens. The starvation blockade is illegal, and these volunteers have every right to try to deliver lifesaving supplies to Gazans suffering under Israel’s siege. The international community must act now to end Israel’s maritime piracy and to ensure that humanitarian law and human life are protected. ALL EYES ON THE SUMUD FLOTILLA. PROTECT HUMANITARIANS. DEFEND HUMAN LIFE. In Solidarity,
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) | 
