Machinist Rob Volker left Rockhampton to join the Global Sumud Flotilla to sail to Gaza. He will join about 1000 people from around the globe trying to deliver 500 tonnes of aid to Palestinians living under occupation.

“The conditions on the ground in Palestine, that Palestinian people are living through, are worse than hell,” Volker said. “To call it anything but a genocide is not acknowledging reality.”

The 35 year-old veteran flew out of Magan-djin/Brisbane in late March to help prepare about 100 boats to break Israel’s 19-year naval blockade on Gaza. It will be the biggest humanitarian maritime mission to ever sail for Palestine.

“I was starting to get bit of a hero complex,” he said. “I walked into the pub one day and one fellow offered to buy me dinner, and then people bought me beers and it sort of made me a little bit embarrassed.

“There’s nothing holding regional Queenslanders back from voicing whatever social issues or opinions we want to voice. The support I got was incredible. It touches your heart. It’s great to see that people care. A lot have gone and looked into the cause and come back and told me about it.”

In 2021 and 2022, leading human rights organisations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released damning reports saying Israel’s decades-long system of oppression against Palestinians amounts to Apartheid.

In September last year, a United Nations commission found that “Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza”.

Since the shaky ceasefire in Gaza on October 10 last........

© Green Left Weekly