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Let’s start with a simple fact: when the Madleen set sail for Gaza from Catania on June 1, its mission was never purely logistical — it was legal, moral, and symbolic.
The small yacht carried a dozen people and a modest amount of humanitarian aid: baby formula, medicine, essential supplies.
Its purpose was not to feed 2.1 million starving people — it was to assert that they have a right to be fed; that aid, from citizens of democratic states, can and must reach them through open seas, unimpeded by illegal blockades.
Israel’s response — swift, forceful, and in international waters — tells us everything we need to know about its attitude to that.
Five books are gone – 45 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
The yacht was surrounded by drones.
Its communications were jammed.
Israeli forces boarded the vessel with weapons, detained all 12 on board, and forcibly towed it to Ashdod.
Greta Thunberg, one of the activists, later described being held in the bottom of the boat, “kidnapped” against her will in a clear breach of international maritime law.
And yet, back in the UK: silence.
No government statement.
No condemnation of the kidnapping of a Swedish and multinational crew, including EU citizens and journalists.
No assertion of the principle that British citizens — or any other civilians — have the right to travel freely through international waters without being intercepted by a foreign military power.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
What the silence says
Contrast this silence with the noise inside the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
As reported by the BBC, more than 300 Foreign Office officials have written to Foreign Secretary David Lammy in protest at the UK’s ongoing complicity in Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Many now fear personal legal liability, should the UK face legal action for assisting in what the International Court of Justice has warned may plausibly constitute genocide.
The response from the top brass? Civil servants were “reminded” that their ultimate recourse, should they disagree profoundly, is to resign.
This is not the behaviour of a government confident in its moral position.
It is the reaction of an administration that knows its hands are dirty and would rather eject dissent than confront the implications of its policy.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Aid as performance?
The Israeli foreign ministry has dismissed the Madleen as a “selfie yacht,” mocking the effort even as its military seized the vessel.
But the symbolism was never superficial.
In a time when international organisations like the UN and Médecins Sans Frontières are calling the situation in Gaza a “Catastrophe,” and when “Famine” (these words capitalised as they represent the most extreme of the World Food Programme’s phases of food security) is expected to be declared imminently in the north, the Madleen posed an existential challenge to Israel’s narrative — and by extension, to its impunity.
If aid to Gaza can be sent without Israel’s approval, then Israel is no longer the sole gatekeeper of humanitarian relief.
If civilians can assert their right to challenge the blockade, then that blockade itself becomes indefensible.
That’s what the boarding of the Madleen was meant to suppress.
That’s why Greta Thunberg’s statement — that the real story is not her, but the siege of two million starving people — matters so deeply.
What next?
The UK has a choice.
It can continue to hide behind vague diplomatic phrases, repeating that Israel is “at risk” of breaching humanitarian law while ignoring the mounting evidence that it already has.
Alternatively, it can join the growing ranks of governments, legal experts, and civil society organisations acknowledging that the siege of Gaza is not just morally abhorrent — it is a crime in progress.
Right now, it is choosing complicity, and punishing those within its own ranks who refuse to look away.
Five books are gone – 45 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
The Madleen has been taken.
But the message it carried is still at sea, louder than ever: starvation is not a legitimate tool of war.
Siege is not self-defence.
And those who tell the truth, even on a small boat with nothing more than a few boxes of medicine, are on the right side of history.
Share this post:
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If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
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Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
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And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
State complicity: the UK government after the Madleen incident
Share this post:
Let’s start with a simple fact: when the Madleen set sail for Gaza from Catania on June 1, its mission was never purely logistical — it was legal, moral, and symbolic.
The small yacht carried a dozen people and a modest amount of humanitarian aid: baby formula, medicine, essential supplies.
Its purpose was not to feed 2.1 million starving people — it was to assert that they have a right to be fed; that aid, from citizens of democratic states, can and must reach them through open seas, unimpeded by illegal blockades.
Israel’s response — swift, forceful, and in international waters — tells us everything we need to know about its attitude to that.
Five books are gone – 45 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
The yacht was surrounded by drones.
Its communications were jammed.
Israeli forces boarded the vessel with weapons, detained all 12 on board, and forcibly towed it to Ashdod.
Greta Thunberg, one of the activists, later described being held in the bottom of the boat, “kidnapped” against her will in a clear breach of international maritime law.
And yet, back in the UK: silence.
No government statement.
No condemnation of the kidnapping of a Swedish and multinational crew, including EU citizens and journalists.
No assertion of the principle that British citizens — or any other civilians — have the right to travel freely through international waters without being intercepted by a foreign military power.
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
What the silence says
Contrast this silence with the noise inside the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
As reported by the BBC, more than 300 Foreign Office officials have written to Foreign Secretary David Lammy in protest at the UK’s ongoing complicity in Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
Many now fear personal legal liability, should the UK face legal action for assisting in what the International Court of Justice has warned may plausibly constitute genocide.
The response from the top brass? Civil servants were “reminded” that their ultimate recourse, should they disagree profoundly, is to resign.
This is not the behaviour of a government confident in its moral position.
It is the reaction of an administration that knows its hands are dirty and would rather eject dissent than confront the implications of its policy.
Get my free guide: “10 Political Lies You Were Sold This Decade” — just subscribe to our email list here:
👉 https://voxpoliticalonline.com
Aid as performance?
The Israeli foreign ministry has dismissed the Madleen as a “selfie yacht,” mocking the effort even as its military seized the vessel.
But the symbolism was never superficial.
In a time when international organisations like the UN and Médecins Sans Frontières are calling the situation in Gaza a “Catastrophe,” and when “Famine” (these words capitalised as they represent the most extreme of the World Food Programme’s phases of food security) is expected to be declared imminently in the north, the Madleen posed an existential challenge to Israel’s narrative — and by extension, to its impunity.
If aid to Gaza can be sent without Israel’s approval, then Israel is no longer the sole gatekeeper of humanitarian relief.
If civilians can assert their right to challenge the blockade, then that blockade itself becomes indefensible.
That’s what the boarding of the Madleen was meant to suppress.
That’s why Greta Thunberg’s statement — that the real story is not her, but the siege of two million starving people — matters so deeply.
What next?
The UK has a choice.
It can continue to hide behind vague diplomatic phrases, repeating that Israel is “at risk” of breaching humanitarian law while ignoring the mounting evidence that it already has.
Alternatively, it can join the growing ranks of governments, legal experts, and civil society organisations acknowledging that the siege of Gaza is not just morally abhorrent — it is a crime in progress.
Right now, it is choosing complicity, and punishing those within its own ranks who refuse to look away.
Five books are gone – 45 to go!
Just click on the image, make your donation
and provide your details!
The Madleen has been taken.
But the message it carried is still at sea, louder than ever: starvation is not a legitimate tool of war.
Siege is not self-defence.
And those who tell the truth, even on a small boat with nothing more than a few boxes of medicine, are on the right side of history.
Share this post:
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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