Reckoning with the failures of the international community
Since October 7, 2023, and well before, Canadians have watched as horrified spectators to one of the most devastating humanitarian crises of our time: the oppression of Palestinians in their homeland under Israeli occupation. Palestinian families have faced forced displacement, manufactured famine, the obliteration of entire bloodlines, murder, and genocide. Men, women, and children have been shredded to pieces by endless bombing campaigns. A record number of journalists have been assassinated. These conflicts are the realities which define the ongoing situation in occupied Palestine and challenge the Western concept of a holistic international community, putting their integrity to the test.
The international community, composed of numerous high-income countries (among others) and international intergovernmental organizations, such as the UN, is supposed to team up to deal with big problems, such as the crisis in Palestine. So far in this case, it has failed. As Canada is a part of this community, it too bears responsibility. The Canadian public has inadequately pressured their government, one so often portrayed as a bastion of peace and cooperation, to push for a ceasefire and denounce Israel’s violations of international law.
Our failure as an international community is exemplified now, as the Global Sumud Flotilla, an independent humanitarian coalition composed of over 15,000 registered participants from over 44 countries, and 50 vessels, sets sail to break the siege of Gaza. The Global Sumud Flotilla’s venture is fortified by the memory of former members of the Free Gaza Movement and Freedom Flotilla Coalition, who have been setting sail on missions to break the siege on Gaza and the West Bank and deliver humanitarian aid since 2006, as well as those who have participated in recent related flotillas embarked on missions to Gaza such as the Madleen (June 2025) and the Handala (July 2025). Members of the Madleen included Greta Thunberg, who was present on both missions and is a prominent young activist, and Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament, along with 10 others. Among the Handala crew was Yipeng Ge, a Chinese Canadian medical doctor, who volunteered previously in medical centers in Gaza, accompanied by 20 crewmates. Both flotillas were intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters and had their journeys cut short on their way to deliver aid to starving Palestinians. American labour organizer Chris Smalls, from the latter boat, was reportedly beaten after being detained.
All these missions embody a collective goal: to act as the manifestation of the world’s collective consciousness. Their valiant resistance has given rise to the largest flotilla coalition in the movement’s history, now including four EU Parliament members and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, as pressure mounts on Israel to end its systematic elimination.
Canada remains one of the few nations which has citizens participating in this humanitarian mission without their government’s support. This stance is, in my view, morally repugnant, sad, and disappointing. It reveals a broader truth to us: governments worldwide, including our own, have long been complicit in these crimes through their inaction. This is precisely why grassroots movements like the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the organizer of former missions, and the current mission to Gaza, exist. When institutions fail, people of good conscience can and must act. The so-called international community has proven unable to save the lives of two million vulnerable and persecuted people in Palestine. As a result, this mission has been launched to exercise a truer form of global empathy.
As someone who hails from a small town in New Brunswick, it is truly awe-inspiring to see not only the likes of activists such as Thunberg taking part in the Sumud Flotilla’s excursion, but everyday people such as doctors, lawyers, seafarers, humanitarians, and social scientists (to name a few), and the hundreds of people involved in the land convoys from northern Africa (namely Tunisia) which were also blocked at the Rafah border crossing of Egypt and denied entry into the Gaza strip due to Israel’s blockade of aid.
These people are the true backbone of our international community. It is a profound tragedy that the world’s wealthiest nations, who claim to lead this community, cannot even voice unified disdain, much less end one of the cruelest events in history since the holocaust.
There is hope that this flotilla can either help stop the bloodshed or force world leaders to finally act. Citizens everywhere must exercise more collective humanity and take seriously our responsibilities to each other. As James Baldwin said, “the world is held together, really it is held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people.” Today, those people are sailing to Gaza.