Al-Haq calls upon third states and international organisations to urgently ensure the safe passage and protection of the crew of The Madleen, a ship of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and to ensure a humanitarian corridor to Gaza. The vessel had been sailing the Mediterranean with the purpose of providing supplies and solidarity to the Palestinians of Gaza, when it was directly threatened by the Israeli state.
On 9 June 2025, Israeli forces intercepted The Madleen in international waters, forcibly boarding the vessel and detaining all crew and passengers. The ship was redirected to the port of Ashdod, and its crew, including humanitarian activists and public figures, were taken into custody. Al-Haq strongly condemns this act of unlawful interception and calls for the immediate release of all those detained, as well as the restoration of their rights under international law.
On 2 May 2025, the ship ‘The Conscience’, also sailing with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) was targeted with two armed drone strikes while in international waters off the coast of Malta – before even sailing to Gaza. Al-Haq warned that that incident ‘should be viewed as a serious warning and further proof of Israel’s blatant disregard for international law, Israel has repeatedly tested the tolerance of the international community, and each time it has been shown that there are no limits to what it can do.’
In 2020, on the 10th anniversary of the Mavi Marmara incident, when Israeli forces killed ten people on the ship seeking to break Israel’s unlawful blockade of Gaza, Al-Haq warned that ‘Impunity for the perpetration of crimes, against the flotilla and against Palestinians more broadly, risks becoming a mere feature of the international justice system. It remains imperative that such a reality be identified, challenged, and overcome.’
As was confirmed by the International Court of Justice in 2024, Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful, and as such Israel is obliged to withdraw unconditionally and as ‘rapidly as possible’ from the whole of the occupied territory. At the core of the Court’s reasoning was the fact that the occupation constitutes an egregious violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination. All states have the legal obligation to support and assist the Palestinian people in the realization of its right to self-determination, as all states have the legal obligation to enforce respect for the Geneva Conventions, and to enforce respect for the Convention Against Genocide.
The international community, states and international organisations, have manifestly failed to ensure that Israel complies with the fundamental humanitarian obligations prescribed under international law. Many states, often self-declared supporters of international law and of human rights, remain deeply complicit in Israel’s crimes, many through the provision of military, economic, and diplomatic support, and many more remain complicit by failing to take the necessary action to enforce international law. It is precisely because of this failure and complicity that initiatives such as ‘The Madleen’ are required.
Israel has no legal authority to restrict access to Palestine, since such is within the exclusive right of the Palestinian people. Israel’s intensification of its genocide in Gaza is being facilitated by its killings of journalists and attacks on media, and through physical and administrative attacks on UN organs including UNRWA. Israel’s manufacture of famine as a tool of genocide, and its blockade of Gaza, is designed to isolate, fragment, and destroy the Palestinian people.
The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion in July 2024 had concluded that: ‘The dependence of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and especially of the Gaza Strip, on Israel for the provision of basic goods and services impairs the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, in particular the right to self-determination’. Israel, is seeking to break and fragment the Palestinian people, and to isolate them from the world, in order to further its racist settler-colonial ideology.
Isolating Palestinians, forcing them into dependence and subjection under Israeli domination, has been a central function of the unlawful blockade since 2007, and is a policy whose toleration by the international community has facilitated the ongoing genocide. As people of conscience seek to demonstrate solidarity with and to provide vital support for the Palestinians of Gaza, third states must urgently ensure both that they are protected from the illegal violence of the Israeli state, and that Israel is forced to cease its genocide and withdraw from all occupied territory.
Where Third States have failed to take action, the crew of ‘The Madleen’ represent the conscience of humanity, bringing hope to the people of Palestine.
- Al-Haq calls on Third States to urgently ensure the safety and protection of ‘The Madleen’ and its crew, to open their maritime waters to the uninterrupted passage of humanitarian aid flotillas to Gaza, and calls on activists and people of conscience to support and join the international efforts to physically ensure the delivery of lifesaving aid to Gaza.
- Al-Haq reminds Third States of the orders of the International Court of Justice in three separate sets of Provisional Measures Orders, to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza at scale, in order to prevent irreparable harm to the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention.
- Al-Haq calls for Third States to apply a full two-way arms embargo, and political and economic sanctions on Israel, and along with its unseating from the United Nations General Assembly for its continuous aggravated breaches of the United Nations Charter.