By Mariam Jooma Carikci
This morning, 9 June 2025, the Israeli military commits a flagrant act of state piracy in international waters—storming the Madleen, a British-flagged civilian vessel en route to Gaza, flying the Union Jack. The Madleen, renamed in honour of Palestinian fisherwoman Madleen Culab, departed from Catania, Sicily on 1 June, carrying a modest yet symbolically powerful consignment of humanitarian supplies: baby formula, flour, diapers, emergency medical kits, and prosthetics for children maimed in Israel’s bombardments.
Despite sailing with full transparency and clearance from European ports, the ship is illegally intercepted approximately 90 nautical miles off Gaza’s coast. The Israeli navy forcibly redirects it to Ashdod port, detains its passengers—including journalists and Swedish climate justice advocate Greta Thunberg—and confiscates its aid cargo.
Yet South Africa’s Daily Maverick responds to this act of aggression with bureaucratic blandness: “Israeli military boarded the Madleen.” Not “seized.” Not “hijacked.” The paper does not lead with this story. It leads instead with domestic speculation about Helen Zille’s potential bid for mayor of Johannesburg.
This is the normalization of impunity.
How Language Obscures Colonial Violence
The Daily Maverick‘s phrasing mirrors the BBC’s headline this morning: “Gaza aid ship with Greta Thunberg onboard diverted by Israeli forces.” “Diverted” is the language of transport logistics, not armed naval operations. This deliberate lexical softening removes the act of force and the breach of international law. A ship flying the flag of a permanent member of the UN Security Council is seized in international waters, and global media frames it as routine procedure.
As Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabbani points out:
“Let’s say if this happened 10 years ago and if this had been a boat carrying aid by the White Helmets to Syria a decade ago, and the Syrian government intercepted it, the UN Security Council would have passed a resolution within hours condemning Damascus.”
Rabbani is a Dutch-Palestinian expert specializing in the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian affairs. His analysis draws on decades of research and diplomacy in the region, and his warning today exposes the entrenched double standards that govern global responses to Israel’s actions.
He is right. When another Middle Eastern state interferes with aid, it is an outrage. When Netanyahu does it, it’s “diversion.” This is not journalistic objectivity—it is editorial alignment with empire.
“Symbolic Aid” or Targeting Solidarity?
Israeli officials and Western pundits waste no time downplaying the event, calling the supplies “symbolic” or “minimal.” But this is not about tonnage. It is about principle. The Madleen carries prosthetic limbs for children who have lost theirs in Israel’s bombardments. It carries flour for a population facing famine, diapers for babies whose parents can’t access water, and basic medical kits in a war zone where hospitals are rubble.
That this vessel is treated as a national security threat by the Middle East’s only nuclear power reveals everything about the logic of settler-colonialism: it criminalizes not only resistance, but relief.
The aid on the Madleen is not just humanitarian—it is political. It affirms that Palestinians are worthy of care. And that is precisely what Israel seeks to destroy.
International Condemnation—and Local Media Silence
While the Daily Maverick sidesteps the issue, international voices begin to respond. Australian Senator David Shoebridge says plainly this morning:
“The Israeli military attacking a boat full of unarmed activists bringing food and medicine to Gaza is a clear breach of international law.”
He adds:
“This should be strongly condemned and have consequences… The Australian government must impose immediate sanctions on the Israeli arms industry and the Netanyahu government.”
This clarity, from a Western lawmaker, makes the silence of South Africa’s so-called progressive press even more damning. South Africa is leading the case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for genocide—yet its media downplays the very events that reinforce that charge.
The Blockade is the Crime
The Madleen sails in international waters, under a recognized flag. Under the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea (1994), interference with such a vessel is only permitted under a lawful blockade. Israel’s siege of Gaza, in place since 2007, is not lawful—it is collective punishment in violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as confirmed by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Mavi Marmara in 2011.
This makes Israel’s act this morning not just immoral—it is illegal. And those who fail to report it as such are enablers of lawlessness.
As Ruth First wrote: “The biggest lie is the story not told.” That lie echoes today in the pages of the Daily Maverick, the BBC, and every outlet that chooses trivia over truth, celebrity over Palestinian resistance, “balance” over justice.
