Blockade for Palestine: Thirty cities act in solidarity

Gaza Besieged

There is an irony to it. For almost 200 days much of the world has watched Gaza starve to death by an “Israel”-imposed blockade. Remember the menacing promise by Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant on October 7th, 2023? Dressed in black, Gallant, with a pale face and a light dusting of white hair, stared down the camera lens. His eyes were vacant, and like a ghost from the future, he forewarned of a disaster, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”  

The disaster was wholly of Gallant’s making. His words should have been enough for the UN and its legal apparatus to swing into action and pursue both Gallant and the settler state of “Israel” for crimes against humanity. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the colonial monster we assumed, and hoped dead, was in fact simply masquerading as a more polite form of pity, a subtler practice of coercion. Within days of Gallant’s infamous words, the facade fell away, and colonial powers rallied to protect their garrison outpost of “Israel”. Western politicians rushed to unashamedly visit the settler state, and parrot ‘self-defence.’ It was then we realised we had been tricked.  

International institutions, promoted as fair and designed to serve all, were in fact racist vehicles of oppression and control. Colonialism had never gone away; it is simply cloaked in a different cloth. The uninformed talking heads on Western news programmes, the nonsensical UN debates, and hypocritical Western government officials once again lectured us, trying to mislead us into thinking the world was made up of the civilised and the uncivilised, the enlightened and the brutes. There is light, and that is where they live, and there is darkness, where others merely exist. This twisted colonial logic is what gives birth to Whiteness, with all its rights, protection, and recourse. Whiteness is by its very nature exclusive and operates on exceptionalism. It feeds on oppression and violence, someone must suffer for it to function, and that someone can have no entitlements, otherwise Whiteness doesn’t work. 

So, Western governments enabled and encouraged their single largest militia outpost, “Israel”, to bomb, brutalise, butcher, and besiege Gaza. But on April 15th a few thousand brave people turned the tables and lay siege to thirty cities around the world. Gaza, colonialism’s open wound, was striking back. And the irony was on view for all to see. 

Thirty Cities Blockaded

The message was simple and shared across social media platforms: “The global economy is complicit in genocide. Join participating cities in blocking the arteries of capitalism and jamming the wheels of production.”

Thirty cities heard the call and readied themselves to lay siege to bridges, highways, ports, factories, and offices. The day chosen, Monday April 15th, carries significance in the Palestinian calendar: It is the date the 1936-39 anti-Zionist revolt began. 

Australia began the worldwide siege and solidarity campaign by blockading a series of sites in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne, Hobart and Sydney, as well as office entrances to companies with ties to Israel including BP, Ferra, and Thales.

In Vietnam, campaigners held teach-ins on Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) tactics. In addition, the five largest supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City were occupied and stickers were placed on products produced by firms linked to “Israel”. The firms included Nestlé, P&G, Unilever, and Pepsi Co. The firms were also called out for their support of “Israel’s” apartheid system.  

Europe followed several hours later. In Greece, ports including COSCO port, and roads were besieged, while in Belfast the main harbour was blockaded as locals chanted “Ní Saoirse go Saoirse don Phailistín” (There is no freedom until Palestine is free). Parts of Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Utrecht were also blockaded. In London property firm Metric, who manage facilities for weapons manufactures BAE, Elbit and Boeing, had their office blockaded, while there was a silent protest in the main shopping area of Piccadilly.    

In Canada, activists came together to blockade Halifax’s main port, where Israeli shipping company Zim has an office. In the US, highways and streets in several states were blocked, in New York, the Brooklyn Bridge was blockaded, and in California, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge was brought to a standstill. The port of Oakland, the ninth busiest in the US, was blockaded for seven hours. 

A Collective of the Morally Conscious 

When I answer the phone, I hear a police siren over the chatter of voices. I am speaking with Hay Sha Wiya who despite the commotion is calm and clear. Hay Sha Wiya knows about occupation – she is from the tribal nation of Fort Peck Assiniboine Sioux in unceded Turtle Island (referred to as the United States by colonialists). 

She feels an affinity with the Palestinian cause – an occupied land and an oppressed indigenous population. She tells me how she is morally uncomfortable with the situation in Palestine and how solidarity with Gaza, and Gazans, is a moral imperative; how symbolic actions are no longer enough and the time for collective risk has arrived.   

Hay Sha Wiya knows the terrain well. She sees the links between capitalism and colonialism, and how they feed off each other uninhibited. Today, she is part of a morally conscious collective laying siege to those parts of the economy that are openly profiting off the butchery, death, and genocide of Palestinians. 

Their Pain is our Resistance 

As I write, my phone is lighting up with details of more blockades. It is also lighting up with news from Gaza. Another mass grave holding ten bodies, some with bandages and catheters still attached, has been unearthed at Al-Shifa Hospital, food shortages are getting worse, and civilians returning to North Gaza earlier today were shot at. The accompanying video is upsetting – men and women of all ages run for cover as automatic gunfire can be heard. Overhead are drones. People are throwing themselves on the ground to avoid being shot. 

For some, it’s too late. One young male, mid-twenties perhaps, is clearly in pain and blood covers his lower abdomen and leg. The next scene finds a recess deep in my mind and won’t leave. It is of a woman. She is seated and is wearing a dark patterned headscarf. She is holding a child, tightly, and is rocking backwards and forwards. You can only see half the woman’s face; the other half is buried in the child’s dark hair. The woman is quiet, the child is lifeless. The little girl was hit by an Israeli bullet in the mouth. 

At the same time as the child’s death, the colonial ringmasters were performing: The Portuguese Prime Minister said his country was not ready to recognise a Palestinian state, while the US Pentagon said it is prepared to “take all necessary action to defend Israel and US personnel” and “will defend Israel no matter what.”

The UK’s David Cameron boasted “RAF [Royal Air Force] jets could defend Israel again, even if the country’s leaders ignored calls from the UK and US to hold back from retaliation against Iran.” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock suggested “Israel” could “defend itself … together with strong allies.” Germany reportedly approved €326.5 million worth of arms exports to “Israel” in 2023. 

Today, people across thirty cities felt Gaza’s pain and turned it into an act of collective resistance. They showed us all it is time to escalate. 

It is much easier for you

To push an elephant through a needle’s eye,

Catch fried fish in galaxy,

Blow out the sun,

Imprison the wind,

Or make a crocodile speak,

Than to destroy by persecution

The shimmering glow of a belief

Or check our march

Towards our cause

One single step…

Tawfiq Zayyad: The Impossible