B.Š. from Belgrade (name and surname known to the editorial office) is the only Serbian citizen who joined the second Global Sumud Flotilla, which will attempt to break the Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. B.Š. tells the N1 portal that this is the largest humanitarian mission of this type in history and that the goal is to bring the Palestinians not only aid but also hope, and to establish a maritime corridor through which the delivery of aid and the reconstruction of Gaza will begin.
And the first of the 39 ships that sailed from the port in Barcelona was exactly the one on which our interlocutor was located. When B.Š. shouted “Thank you Barcelona” from the bow, singing and chanting “Long live Palestine, boycott Israel” was heard from the shore.
B.Š. says he is over 50 years old and has been an activist for more than two decades. He fought against Slobodan Milošević, against lithium mining, advocated for aid to migrants in Serbia, welcomed and greeted students, and now he is heading to Gaza to bring the Palestinians aid and hope.
“Currently, I am the only member of the team, which for now numbers about 400 people from more than 50 countries, the only one from Serbia, practically from the region as well. For now. Many more vessels are joining from Italy, some from Greece, and then in Turkey, so in the end, there should be between 100-120 vessels and almost 1,000 people,” B.Š. told the N1 portal.
“The first thing I can tell you is that I have never seen a more organized organization in my life, and I participated at one time during the entire summer and part of the autumn of 2000 in the headquarters for the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević’s regime. I am over 50 years old, I have never seen anything like it,” said B.Š., delighted with the organization in which he is participating.
Although it was planned for the flotilla to set sail on April 12, the stay in Barcelona was extended due to announced bad weather conditions on the Mediterranean Sea.
“There was a ceremonial send-off from Barcelona, with thousands of people, lots of media, concerts, forums, events, but due to the storm predicted at sea for the next two or three days, we only moved to another port, waiting for suitable weather conditions to continue our journey to Gaza,” explained B.Š.
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Security check before entering the flotilla
B.Š. will sail to Gaza on a sailboat captained by Malcolm from London. As he explains, joining the flotilla is not easy or simple, and everything was preceded by a series of online meetings and conversations on various topics and finally a security check.
“When I was finally accepted, mostly because of my activism, life views, and some knowledge of handling a sailboat, I came to Barcelona two weeks ago for the final preparation of the ships for the flotilla as well as ourselves. Otherwise, people have been here since November preparing the organization and the ships, determined to organize a second one immediately after the first flotilla, until the siege of Gaza is broken, and they will never give up,” says the N1 interlocutor.
Asked what motivated him to set out on this mission and leave his family at home, he says that his motivation lies in the attitude that “when one child in a family is sick, you pay more attention to that child than to another child who has problems at violin lessons.”
“When people in a society are dying of hunger, you will first feed the hungry, and not deal with the bankruptcy of sports clubs. Likewise, when an entire nation is disappearing from the face of the earth due to the longest-running genocide that has lasted for 80 years, without the possibility to fight for its rights, and on the other side we have the most brutal murderers at the head of a state, then the focus of the whole world must be on that, regardless of the fact that there are major problems in almost every corner of the planet,” said B.Š.
Those are his personal motives, and the goals of the flotilla are to break the blockade and deliver aid, as well as to establish a maritime corridor to Gaza.
“The first goal of the mission is to break the blockade and for the ships, with or without aid, to reach the shores of Gaza. By doing so, we would first bring the Palestinians immense hope, humanitarian aid, and then a sea corridor would be established for continuous humanitarian actions and convoys for the reconstruction of Gaza, from all over the world. However, the organizers are aware that the chances of that happening are not excessively high, so they have prepared three more possible scenarios that could happen, which do not depend on us,” said B.Š.
What those scenarios are – he does not want to reveal for now.
The second goal is, he states, to expose the nature of the Israeli regime in case their armed forces once again intercept the ships in international waters.
“The third goal is raising the Palestinian question to the top of the world public’s priorities, all governments of the world, and the United Nations, with a media bomb in April and May 2026, whichever of the four possible scenarios happens,” said B.Š.
As a fourth goal, he cites the desire for the world’s leading governments to impose sanctions on Israel, as a form of pressure to change the situation in favor of Gaza and the Palestinians.
Ready for the risk of being arrested
In October last year, the Israeli army stopped about 40 boats gathered by the same organization while they were trying to reach the blockaded Gaza Strip, and then detained about 450 participants of that endeavor. Among them was a student from Serbia, Ognjen Marković.
B.Š. says that this flotilla is much better organized, and that the ships are in much better condition.
“Open Arms and Greenpeace ships have joined us, many other NGOs from all over the world. Media attention is growing more and more, and security is at a higher level. In the last ten days, we participants have had many lectures, trainings, exercises, many WHAT-IF questions/options, a lot of information, documents, etc.,” states B.Š.
Although the previous flotilla did not succeed in delivering the much-needed aid to the Palestinians, B.Š. says that it was not unsuccessful and that it served “in this marathon struggle for truth, justice, and freedom.”
“Likewise, we are ready for a worse scenario (possible drones across the entire Mediterranean, armed attack…) as a flotilla, but also each of us who joined voluntarily. We are also, of course, ready for a better scenario than last year’s, if pressure from a large number of countries and the world public bears fruit,” he said.
He adds that mostly all participants recorded a video with a personal message to the public, family, and their governments, similar to the one student Ognjen recorded last year. In case they are intercepted and arrested at sea, GSF will send these recordings from land to the media and other organizations.
Spain helps the flotilla
Last year, Spain asked the international community to consider imposing sanctions on Israel to force it to end the war in Gaza. Tel Aviv accused Madrid of having an “anti-Israeli obsession,” which is why Israel banned Spain from participating in monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza.
Spain criticizes Israel not only because of the war in Gaza but also because of the attacks on Iran, and the country made a decision to close its airspace to any aircraft involved in the conflict in the Middle East that began with the Israeli-American attack on Iran on February 28.
B.Š. says that the Spanish government is helping the flotilla a lot, as are the city authorities of Barcelona.
“We use their city hall, one of their ports which, as I said, has been occupied by our ships since November. They have patience, but they also do not want to be on the wrong side of history,” our interlocutor assessed.
He adds that all governments are under pressure to accommodate the flotilla at least minimally, fearing negative publicity and large protests.
When it sets off, the flotilla will sail non-stop for several days and nights until the first next port. B.Š. promised to contact us again as soon as he has the opportunity.
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Source: N1; Photo: N1 / Ustupljena fotografija