The Flotilla Fiasco

[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]

The weather has not been cooperating with the Global Sumud Flotilla that set out from Barcelona on September 1 to “break the blockade of Gaza.” With winds too high in one place, and no winds at all in another, the flotilla boats have either returned to port (in Barcelona) or stayed in port (Sidi Abou Said in Tunisia) or moved from one port to another nearby (from Sidi Abou Said to Bizerte, also in Tunisia). Flotilla crew members have claimed that drones struck two of its boats, though Tunisian authorities insist that there “is no truth” to that claim. With all this delay and confusion, the flotilla is becoming as much of a fiasco as was the Spanish Armada in 1588. So here we are, more than two weeks since the flotilla first set sail, with little Greta Thunberg and her merry men still stuck in Tunisia, with some of the boats still in the port of Sidi Bou Said, while most of them have now moved to the port in Bizerte, farther to the northwest, and thus farther from the flotilla’s ultimate goal of Gaza. More on the flotilla’s trajectory can be found here: “Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla stalled in Tunisian ports for a week,” by Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, September 14, 2025:

The Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla stalled in Tunisian ports for a week. It arrived in Tunisia on September 7 after crossing from Spain and was expected to keep sailing toward Gaza.

The Tunisian authorities have disputed that drones were involved and said an initial inspection indicated the explosions originated inside the vessels. It’s not hard to see why the claim was made by the flotilla’s organizers: to blame an attack by Israel as the reason for the flotilla’s many delays.

However, the flotilla activists chose to stay near Tunis at the marina of Sidi Bou Said. The activists then claimed two of their vessels had been hit by drones.

Last Thursday, a number of vessels in the flotilla left Sidi Bou Said and headed north toward the Tunisian marina in Bizerte. The flotilla was seeking to avoid high winds off the coast, according to reports.

It was not clear why traveling to Bizerte, and thus backtracking, would help them avoid the wind, because the winds in Bizerte were the same as in Tunis and Sidi Bou Said. Nevertheless, the flotilla spent September 12 and 13 in Bizerte.

Reports online suggested the flotilla had actually left Bizerte on September 13….

It’s still unclear: how many of the flotilla boats are now in Bizerte, and how many in Sidi Bou Said? Are those in Sidi Bou Said going to continue on to Gaza, or is it, rather, to be those now in Bizerte who will be given that task?

It is approximately 260 miles from Tunisia to Malta, located south of Sicily. However, a previous flotilla had trouble off Malta in May. They may not want to stop in the same place again. Either way, with two squadrons now seeking to meet somewhere between Tunisia and Gaza, the flotilla activists have their sailing cut out for them.

The originally announced contingent of 50 boats in the flotilla now appears to have been reduced to several dozen because some of those boats have been deemed unseaworthy, given the weather, for the trip to Gaza. The armada returned to port just one day after first leaving it in Barcelona, then set out again a few days later, but instead of heading straight to Gaza went to Tunisia’s port at Sidi Bou Said. It was here that the flotilla crews claimed to have been struck by two drones, which Tunisian authorities have denied. Some of the boats went on to the port of Bizerte, for reasons that remain unclear.

Greta, who went ashore at Bizerte for some shopping and sightseeing, returned to her boat wearing turquoise crocs and a fanny pack, ready to resume her excellent adventure. And the world waits to see what happens with this publicity-seeking armada, as it tries to take off again, apparently from Bizerte instead of Sidi Abou Said. Will it make it close to Gazan shores, where the boats will be stopped by the Israeli navy, while television cameras record those cruel Israelis stopping boats bringing humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza? One more anti-Israel stunt will have been successfully completed. Meanwhile, in the time it took the flotilla to sail from Spain via Tunisia to just offshore of Gaza, before its boats were brought to an Israeli port, the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will have delivered more than 15 million meals to the people of Gaza. But that is not deemed newsworthy. Greta Thunberg, on the other hand, is.