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Protests in the UK against Israel’s seizure of the Freedom Flotilla’s Madleen aid ship bound for Gaza

Emergency protests took place across the UK Monday night against Israel’s interception of the Madleen aid ship bound for Gaza, and the kidnap of its crew. The largest demonstration, in London, mobilised roughly 1,500 people.

London Madleen protest, June 9, 2025

One protester explained, “Israel keeps flagrantly violating international law. Kidnapping people on a humanitarian aid mission is just another example of the international law that Israel keeps flouting and other governments keep ignoring. They’ve crossed so many red lines now that it’s up to the people to say, ‘This is not okay’.”

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Lee, who did not wish to be photographed, told our reporters, “I’m here because there’s a genocide going on right now. They’re starving Palestinians, which is against international law. It’s a war crime. It’s a crime against humanity. And the government isn’t doing enough.

“Everyone always says, what would they do if they were alive during the Holocaust? We would try to stop it. It is happening again right now. The people in power aren’t doing anything. So it’s important that everyone comes out to protest because the politicians work for us. We don’t work for them. So they need to start representing us and what we want.”

Speaking about the raid on the Madleen, he said, “I was up all last night tracking it as it happened, so sort of seeing it as it was going on. I expected it to happen, but I was really shocked that the BBC didn’t report anything on it until after it happened. I sent multiple complaints, everyone I know sent complaints to the BBC, but until it actually happened, the BBC said absolutely nothing about the flotilla.”

He condemned the British government’s silence, adding “international law says that they have a duty to protect them and to demand their safe return.”

Another protester asked, “If a British flagged ship is hijacked by a terrorist organisation [the IDF] and people are taken away and our government is quiet about it, what does that mean? Does that mean we don’t matter too? Am I okay, am I safe? Because the government won’t stand up for them, it won’t stand up for the Palestinians.”

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Tate told the WSWS it was important “to answer the call to action issued in the last 12 hours” over the Madleen, especially given the silence of the Foreign Office. He added that “The situation in Gaza is extremely dire at the moment; it’s worse than it’s ever been in the past 18 months. And the fact that the government in that building over there is still denying, supporting, involved with this is just, it’s horrible.”

Another demonstrator described how “The Flotilla is a symbolic act, highlighting the siege and blockage of essential aid to the people in Gaza… The IDF, in a very cowardly action, have taken hostages, the 12 activists of the Freedom Flotilla, We don’t know their whereabouts. Once again a violation of international law. And the British government has a responsibility… legally they are obliged to do something.”

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Several hundred people also protested in Manchester and Liverpool. Harry insisted at the Liverpool demonstration, “There is only one solution and that is revolution. Because the powers that be have proven that they will not accept change.” He pointed to the enormous importance of the struggles emerging in America in defence of migrant workers.

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A Palestinian asylum seeker in Manchester protested “to support my country and stop the killings of children, women and men, they are killing everybody. I will do everything I can to try and stop this, I will give whatever I can, any money I have I will give.”

Asked about the Madleen, he replied, “It is bad that the UK government supports this. This is not a war against Hamas, they want to kill everybody there, everybody can see that. We don’t choose to be born Palestinian and yet we are being killed for it.”

He concluded, “We need help from everybody, in every country to stop this killing.”