Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1535109
5 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 7 MAY 2025 ANALYSIS Freedom Flotilla and Europe's moral abdication: NGOs step in where states fail As European governments prevaricate or remain silent in the face of mass starvation in Gaza, NGOs like the Freedom Flotilla are stepping in to uphold international law and moral responsibility. James Debono writes. The moral vacuum left by states Governments are bound by different rules of engagement than NGOs like the Freedom Flotilla, whose symbolic actions are meant to expose the moral failure of state actors such as the EU. But why have state actors left the mor- al imperative to NGOs in the face of the genocide unfolding in Gaza? Gazans are being starved, denied ac- cess to food, water, and vital supplies in a military tactic reminiscent of medie- val siege warfare. The Geneva Convention (Article 54, Paragraph 2 of Additional Protocol I (AP1)) explicitly forbids starvation tac- tics: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indis- pensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricul- tural areas for the production of food- stuffs, crops, [and] livestock." Also, the founding treaty of the Inter- national Criminal Court (Article 8(2)(b) (xxv) of the Rome Statute of 1998) clas- sifies starvation as a war crime when civilians are deliberately targeted as a method of warfare. Starvation as a weapon of war The United Nations has repeatedly warned that catastrophic famine and mass starvation are already a reality in Gaza. According to UNICEF, 9,000 children have been admitted for treat- ment of acute malnutrition since the beginning of the year. Hundreds more children in desperate need of treatment are unable to access it due to insecurity and displacement. Despite this being in breach of inter- national law, Israel acts with impunity, doubling down on a war that has left 55,000 people buried under the rubble. Yet, no state actor has intervened to stop this genocide, and the EU's mild criticism remains shrouded in a dis- course that still refers to Israel's "right to defend itself". While the 1948 Geno- cide Convention calls upon signatories to not only punish but also prevent gen- ocide, the EU has so far taken no such step. A tale of double standards It is worth recalling that in 1998, NA- TO undertook military action—includ- ing bombardments of Belgrade—to stop Serbia from committing war crimes in Kosovo, at a time when Serbia accused Kosovar armed groups of terrorism. The EU's (justified) military support for Ukraine is similarly grounded in the language of humanitarian intervention- ism. No one is calling for armed interven- tion to stop Israel from attacking civil- ians. But neither has any EU member state suspended diplomatic relations with a rogue state acting with such dis- regard for human life. Countries like Malta continue to equivocate on recog- nising Palestine as a state. At the very least, one would expect a concerted European effort to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. One way to achieve this is to send aid even if Israel refuses its entry. Dispatching a peaceful fleet to Gaza would be a strong moral statement from a Europe that claims to be a humanitarian voice and a mor- al leader. Blocking it would only expose Israel's disregard for humanitarian val- ues. But clearly, this will not happen. The freedom flotilla's moral stand In this vacuum, it is the Freedom Flo- tilla that is acting on a moral imperative to provide humanitarian assistance to those in desperate need. Given the scale of the crisis, the Free- dom Flotilla's actions are symbolic and political. They aim to expose the inac- tion of state actors, including the EU, and to provoke a response from Israel— even at the risk of repeating the deadly outcome of 2010, when nine activists were killed during a flotilla raid by Is- raeli commandos. In this sense the aims of this movement are necessarily dis- trustful of state actors. One of the greatest merits of liberal democracies is that they recognise the role of NGOs in pushing boundaries, The humanitarian vessel Conscience was damanged by suspected drone attack