Above photo: A photo of members of Veterans for Peace aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla. Via Veterans For Peace, Instagram.
Veterans for Peace member Phillip Tottenham speaks to Mondoweiss about why he joined the Global Sumud Flotilla.
It is sailing to Gaza in protest of the genocide and in an attempt to break the Israeli siege.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which departed Barcelona on August 31, is the largest civilian maritime attempt to break Israel’s siege of Gaza. Dozens of boats are sailing across the Mediterranean to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
On the night of September 23, the boats were hit with a barrage of attacks.
“Multiple drones, unidentified objects dropped, communications jammed and explosions heard from a number of boats,” said the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) in a statement. “We are witnessing these psychological operations first-hand, right now, but we will not be intimidated.”
This was not the first time the flotilla had been targeted.
Alleged drones hit two boats in the flotilla earlier this month, and, while Israel’s involvement has not been proven, the country’s Foreign Ministry has denounced the mission as a “jihadist initiative.”
“Israel’s rhetoric against the Global Sumud Flotilla sets the stage for further escalation. Painting a peaceful humanitarian mission as a ‘breach of the law’ is a pretext for violence against civilians acting lawfully to deliver aid,” said members of the flotilla at the time.
Phillip Tottenham is a member of the activist group Veterans For Peace and a passenger on the Ohwayla. The boat, which is mainly comprised of veterans, is part of the Gaza-bound flotilla.
Tottenham spoke to Mondoweiss U.S correspondent Michael Arria about the flotilla and how he became involved shortly before the boats were attacked.
Where is the boat you’re on currently located?
We’re out in the middle of nowhere right now, no land in sight. We are less than 650 nautical miles from the Gaza shore.
I believe we left Sicily three days ago. The days kind of run together. We have a flotilla tracker for all the boats and for our boat, the Ohwayla, on which the United States veterans are on. We’ve just been sailing along, waiting.
One of our command ships had to wait in port in Sicily for repairs and such. They just caught up to us all. From here, we’re going to proceed and then meet up with more 16 boats from Greece. Then from there, it’s a straight shot to Gaza.
You mentioned that your boat is mainly veterans. Who else is on there with you?
Greg Stoker heads up the veterans’ boat. He’s a four-time Army Ranger and combat tour veteran in Afghanistan. We also have Zue, who is a combat veteran. Then there are two fellow Marines of mine, Mo and Jess. They both worked for the HMX-1 squadron under Obama and have now reunited here on this boat after, I think they said, 18 years.
Greg Stoker is a journalist for Mint Press News. We also have a couple of journalists, one from Mexico who’s been to Gaza and reported from there before, and another Finnish journalist. We have another Finnish member of the crew and a combat medic living in Norway, so we are representing a number of countries.
Can you talk about Veterans for Peace and what brought you to this kind of activism?
It was a whole process for me. Waking up and doing the research and really just following the money trail.
I didn’t know that Veterans for Peace existed. I actually met Mike Ferner, the former director of Veterans for Peace, at a Palestine protest in Toledo, Ohio, of all places, where I moved to last year. Serendipitously, we ran into each other the following week at the VA. We just happened to have appointments with our doctors then.
He waited for me to go to lunch and told me about Veterans for Peace. I was ecstatic because I’d been kind of yelling into the abyss, not just about Palestine but about multiple social justice issues of marginalized people.
Mike talked to me about VFP, and I had this idea for a fast. A week later, I got copied on this email, and that included some pretty notable names, like Ann Wright, Kathy Kelly, and other peace activists. We started to collaborate on what was to be called the Veterans and Allies Fast for Gaza. We did that for 40 days, on a 250-calorie-a-day diet that was the average caloric intake people in Gaza have been experiencing since at least March, but obviously before that as well.
That’s how I fell into it and, like I said, it’s been a serendipitous coincidence because I went to Bethlehem before October 7, and just the amount of suffering that I saw and the killing of children by the IOF motivated me and inspired me to take a sledgehammer to the apartheid wall in Bethlehem.
I have been surrounded by peace warriors who have been advocating since the Vietnam War. The people I’ve met have been so compassionate and genuine that I was welcomed in the same way I was welcomed by people in the West Bank. We have so much more in common with people around the world than we do with our governments and the billionaire class.
I grew up pretty sheltered and with a privileged lifestyle. My great-grandfather was lifelong friends with [former U.S. President] Lyndon Johnson. LBJ was his gate attendant when he sold pralines, and he paid LBJ through pralines. My grandparents were friends with [former Texas Governor] John Connally. My nephew’s godmother is Ashley Cavanaugh, Justice Cavanaugh’s wife, and my brother-in-law is the head of Exxon Mobil government relations.
So it was a hard journey for me to lose everything that I believed in and the lies that I uncovered to get to this point. My ancestors were part of the original 300 Texas settlers who came over with Stephen F. Austin and slaughtered and murdered the indigenous people.
Now that I can see what’s going on and see the world for what it is, I can see white supremacy for what it is.
After the fast ended, I was asked to join the flotilla. I said yes because I didn’t know what else there was to do. This felt like something I could do.
Now we’re being threatened with physical violence and even terrorism charges. We will see how it plays out, but everyone with this flotilla is undeterred in our commitment.
What did you think of the boats recently being attacked, and has that impacted morale?
We don’t know for certain whether it was Israel. We know, at the very least, it was people acting on Israel’s behalf. It’s par for the course.
The first firebomb didn’t really get close to hitting anybody, but the second one sure did. I don’t know if forensically they’re still trying to figure out where it came from, but it’s just another tactic that the Zionists use, and you know, in port in Tunisia, we were delayed because of this Zionist-owned yacht called the Paloma. This French billionaire bribed the port officials and basically used the rest of the fuel that we were in line to get. So we had to wait another day.
We’re not surprised by their tactics. I think they know their backs are against the wall. They know that their lies are being exposed and that this watered-down argument that “Everybody is Hamas” is not working. People don’t believe it.
We’re completely unarmed. We just posted a video of all the aid and food that we are trying to bring in. I think we have to lead by example and lead by actions. Words without actions are just hollow.
We are in the belly of the beast, and this is not a drill. We need everybody to join some kind of organization. If we don’t step up with solidarity, then we’re done.
