Since the news broke, Israel’s propaganda machine has gone into overdrive, dismissing the Madleen as a “selfie yacht”, a line echoed by western media outlets. “There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip – they do not involve Instagram selfies,” declared a shameless Israeli Foreign Ministry. Israel knows all about those ways, because it has systematically blocked them.

In the past 20 months, Israel has ratcheted up the blockade. Even former prime minister Olmert, for decades a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, denounced his state for committing grave war crimes as a matter of official policy. On 10 October 2023, for example, Israeli general Ghassan Alian – who headed the Israeli military department supposedly charged with humanitarian aid – declared that the “citizens of Gaza” had collective guilt, and that “human beasts are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza. No electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell – you will get hell.” This was just one of multiple statements of criminal and genocidal intent that left no doubt about the crime to come.

According to ProPublica in 2024, it was revealed that the two foremost US authorities on humanitarian assistance concluded that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza. Under US legislation, this should have immediately triggered the suspension of weapons shipments – but the Biden administration did not accept the findings. You may not be aware of either of these reports, because they received precious little coverage from a western media that has deceived its audiences about Israel’s genocidal intent and behaviour.

The Madleen did not make it to Gaza’s shores. Yet its crew exposed an obscenity that has repulsed western citizens, who will one day force their governments to cease their complicity – which is why, in the end, Israel will lose.