The Thousand MadleeNs to Gaza flotilla is an international solidarity action in support of the Palestinian people.

Thousand Madleens to Gaza is a grassroots citizen movement promoting solidarity between peoples working together to end Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza, and to support long-term justice, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians.

This movement was launched a few weeks after Madleen's return with a clear idea: they can stop one boat, but they cannot stop a large, international, and determined flotilla. United, we can shift the global balance of power.

Within a few months, some twenty national delegations sprang up around the world, raising several hundred thousand euros to send a first flotilla with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, consisting of nine ships and 143 people on board, in October 2025.

We are building strong ties with our comrades in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and we have made them a promise: to send flotillas until Palestine is free and its people can live in self-determination.

That is why we are preparing a new historic wave to break Israel’s illegal siege!

our objectives

We sail to break the illegal siege on Gaza enforced by Israel and its allies and to challenge their control and occupation of Palestinian land, including Palestine's borders and Gaza's territorial waters.

 

We are part of a wider direct action movement that confronts Israel's crimes, while exposing the systems, institutions and international governments that enable, fund or profit from Israel's colonial oppression and genocidal apartheid regime in Palestine.

 

Our aim is not to replace the work of humanitarian NGOs. Rather, we stand in solidarity with Palestinians and their right to decide over their own land and resources by collaborating directly with Palestinian communities in Gaza through material contributions that support their lasting sovereignty.

 

In the absence of government and institutional action, we make continued efforts as a civilian flotilla, taking nonviolent direct action in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, freedom of movement, right to return, lasting sovereignty, liberation and freedom, from the river to the sea.

Organisations we collaborate

with or support in Palestine

our eyes must be fixed on Palestine

The Zionist colonization of Palestine is not new; after Britain issued the 1917 Balfour Declaration, self-proclaimed terrorist paramilitary groups began to form - armed European settlers assaulted and killed Palestinians over the course of decades, as well as British soldiers to force them to leave. The British withdrew from Palestine in the late 1940’s, prompting the Nakba - the establishment of the State of Israel.

 

Zionist forces expelled roughly 80% of the Palestinian population from their homes, assaulted and massacred thousands of Palestinians, and systematically destroyed hundreds of villages. This impunity paved the way for Israel’s apartheid, genocide, land theft, and brutality across Gaza, the West Bank, and the wider region that we witness today.

 

After two years of Israel’s ongoing bombardment, deliberate starvation and genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, today, approximately 58% of Gaza's land has been annexed by Israel, and 60% of the West Bank is under full Israeli occupation.

 

According to the UN, settlers have attacked Palestinians nearly 3,000 times in the West Bank over the past two years alone - killing Palestinians, clubbing women unconscious, abducting children, destroying fields, uprooting olive trees, and assaulting journalists and paramedics.

 

Since the so-called “ceasefire,” Israel's genocide in Gaza continues. But Israel's plan does not stop at the Palestinian borders. Israel is drawing new borders and attacking its neighbours: Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and even Iran, not to mention its extractive activities in places such as the Congo, or the global development of its surveillance industry.

We must denounce and stop our states' active participation in the ongoing genocide in Palestine

In many countries around the world, recognition of the State of Palestine - where it exists - must be accompanied by concrete action. Yet in Europe and the United States, governments continue to allow their national industries to produce, finance, or export military technologies that directly benefit the Israeli army. By maintaining these exchanges and collaborations, our governments are therefore participating in war crimes by refusing to suspend arms exports and military partnerships.

 

Europe and the United States directly or indirectly finance the Israeli military industry.

The European Union recently approved military research and development programs involving Israeli companies, including Israel Aerospace Industries, one of Israel's leading state-owned arms companies. In May 2024, a European project to develop military drones received more than €40 million in public funding, part of which directly benefits this industry.

 

In the United States, the government continues to provide Israel with billions of dollars in annual military aid, while authorizing the delivery of advanced weapons components and systems used in repression and bombing in Palestine.

 

Western financial institutions also play a key role

Many European and North American banks and investment funds are among the main financiers of companies involved in the production of weapons used by Israel or in the construction and expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. These investments, often hidden behind complex portfolios, contribute to the perpetuation of a system of oppression and violence.