Madleen Declaration

The Madleen Declaration

This declaration, put forward by the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy, ties together crises of border violence and refugee deaths at sea, extractivism and fossil fuel dependence, militarism, Big Tech and corporate power, the genocide in Palestine, and environmental destruction in the Mediterranean - and argues urgently for a transformative social, environmental and political alternative.

On Monday, 9th June Israeli forces boarded the Freedom Flotilla Coalition sailboat Madleen in international waters and kidnapped her crew to prevent the passage of aid to the besieged Palestinian people.

Despite at least 62,000 deaths and countless more people killed, injured, bereaved and displaced over the last two years in Gaza, it fell to one small boat to attempt to break Israel’s blockade.

The international community has allowed a genocide to unfold in plain sight. And the poison of impunity is spreading. A month ago the aid ship Conscience was bombed off the Maltese shoreline, over a thousand miles from Gaza.

Subsequent Maltese obstruction of the Conscience’s requests for aid mirrored Europe’s routine frustration of attempts to rescue people in distress at sea. Tens of thousands - Palestinians fleeing occupation among them - have drowned in the central Mediterranean on the world’s deadliest migration route.

Here too, civilian ships and people seeking safety face obstruction and criminalisation as they keep humanitarian action alive; whilst European states sponsor crimes against humanity.

En route to Gaza, the Madleen crew rescued four Sudanese refugees, fleeing genocidal forces backed by the West’s Gulf allies. They were unable to prevent the others on board being returned to Libya by an EU-backed militia, where people seeking safety routinely face slavery, incarceration, and death.

Meanwhile the same Israeli Heron drones that surveil and target Palestinians in Gaza also police the Mediterranean for EU’s border agency Frontex. Across the Mediterranean, European states funnel money, weapons and political support to authoritarians and militias whilst claiming to uphold human rights.

In return, Europe demands its neighbours act as border guards, buyers of its weapons and tech, and a steady supplier of fossil fuels and resources.

The outcome is a sea where humanitarian ships and refugees are blocked whilst deadly arms and ecosystem-destroying fossil fuels move freely. And the sea itself is suffering. Amid successive years of record heat, the Mediterranean that is now warming a fifth faster than the world’s other oceans and much of the plant and animal life on its shores is dying out.

The climate campaigners on the Madleen sailed to a Gaza where ecocide has compounded genocide, through a Mediterranean where more storms, fires and floods than ever before drive people from their homes and destroy their livelihoods. Those who protest the confluence of state violence and environmental destruction are targeted.

From Italy to Egypt, harsh civil liberties restrictions have recently targeted climate activists, human rights activists and migrants first. Governments that claim to be protecting their people from the crises we are living through are in fact exacerbating them. This is as true in Europe as it is in Trump’s America, despite the growing schism between them.

Palestine provides a glimpse of where this could end for us all.

Israel’s new so-called “aid” distribution system in Gaza: a labyrinth of surveillance drones and biometric gates operated amid a lethal blockade by troops and private security companies, is a terrifying model of modern repression. And the technologies it uses are both imported and exported globally. Against this system, we must build a different future while we can.

In place of war and genocide, we demand a free Palestine.
In place of racialised and deadly borders and blockades we demand free movement.
In place of destructive and polluting rearmament programmes and aid budgets being torn apart, we demand wages and housing and humanity.

In place of tech billionaires’ dreams of mass surveillance and control, we demand that humanity’s technological capabilities are harnessed towards increasing, not restricting our freedom.
In place of climate and environmental destruction and extraction we demand a just transition, the restoration of our natural world, and cheap clean energy for all.

LANGUAGES

ENGLISH

DATE

15 JUNE 2025

CATEGORY

OFFICIAL STATEMENT

IMAGE CREDITS

SALVATORE ALLEGRA/
ANADOLU AGENCY
‍

In place of a Mediterranean Sea torn apart by state, corporate, and neocolonial violence, we demand a shared home in which we all can thrive.

In place of death and despair, we demand life and hope.

Please add your organization or individual name here,

By Tuesday, 17 June 12:00PM CEST

Sign the Declaration

[ List Of Signatories ] :

Organizations:‍

The Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy
Freedom Flotilla Coalition
No Name Kitchen, Spain
EmpowerVan, Switzerland
Missing Voices (REER), Senegal
The Hummingbird Refugee Project, UK
Artists for Palestine, UK
Hermes Centre, Italy
Reclaim the Sea, UK
Haringey Welcome, UK
Fridays for Future MAPA
Youth Advocates for Climate Action, Philippines
Fridays for Future International
The Students for Palestine (TS4P), Canada
Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice
Antizionist Jewish Alliance, Belgium
Melitea, Italy
Glocal Roots, Greece
Abolish Frontex
Love Without Borders, Greece
Refugees in Libya, Italy/Libya
Walk the Petition Collective, Ireland
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Statewatch, UK
Sarah Seenotrettung, Germany
Monkstown Vigil for Palestine, Ireland
Pals for Palestine, Ireland
Migrants Organise, UK
Mobile Info Team, Greece
For Refugees, UK
North Wicklow Against Genocide, Ireland
Refugee Platform Egypt
CODEPINK, USA
Sarnians4Palestine, Canada
American Friends of Combatants for Peace, USA
Droichead Solidarity Group in Tipperary, Ireland
Hot Bubble
Sneem Tidytowns
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, UK
Mothers Against Genocide, Ireland
Tipping Point, UK
Bank Better, UK
Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Ireland
Uni for Palestine Munich, Germany
Stop Wapenhandel, Netherlands
Northern Lights Aid, Greece
Jews for Peace, Latvia
Sea-Watch e.V., Germany
Platform London, UK
CRID, France
Watch the Med - Alarm Phone, International
Monkstown Vigil in Solidarity with Palestine, Ireland
The Border Violence Monitoring Network
Global Justice Now, UK
Klima4Palästina, Germany
BiPOC for Future, Germany
Rumbo a Gaza, Spain
Naas Biodiversity Group, Ireland
Migration-Control.Info
The Civil Fleet Podcast, UK
South Yorkshire Refugee and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG), UK
US Boats to Gaza, USA
Canadian Boat to Gaza (part of the Freedom Flotilla), Canada
Ongi Etorria Errefuxiatuak, Basque Country
Ecomuseo Mare Memoria Viva, Italy
Shut Down Folkston ICE Processing Centre, USA
Seebrücke, Berlin
Climáximo, Portugal
Parents for Future, Scotland
Climate Refugees, USA

Individuals:‍

Greta Thunberg
MEP Carola Rackete, Germany
Petra Molnar, Faculty Associate, Harvard University, Canada
Fahmida Miah, UK
Natasha Walter, UK
Gina Psylliakou, Greece
Chloe Sarshar, Canada
Carys Boughton, UK
Farhana Sheikh, UK
Hector Proveda, Spain
Birgit Staack, Germany
Eva Anagnostou, Greece
Lou-Salomé Beaunay, France
Josipa Lulić, Croatia
Emma Martín Díaz, Professor of Social Anthropology, Spain
Domenica Cox, UK
Manon Louis, UK
Francesco Anselmetti, PhD Candidate, Harvard University, UK
Noah Hatchwell, UK
Pauline Fritz, Germany
Marc Schulpin, Germany
Stephanie Richani, Cyprus
Sue Fraser, UK
Cassio Peia, Italy
Clara Zinecker, Cyprus
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Philippines
Claudia Lombardo, Spain
Ben Anderson, Ireland
Rand Attallah, USA
Fernando Racimo, Italy
Atizkoa Lopez de Lapuente Portilla, Spain
Vesna Ivezic, Croatia
Ayaan Khan, Canada
Hope Barker, UK
Innah Gaspar, Germany
Fenya Fischler, AJAB, EAJS, European Jews for Palestine, Belgium
Samia Khoder, Germany
Georgia Nash, UK
Sigrid Skou Hansen, Denmark
Silvia Carta
Mariana Santos, Portugal
Jude Farrel, Ireland
Kirsten Farrelly, Ireland
Christine Barry, Ireland
Natasha King, UK
Aisling Drury Byrne, Ireland
Clare Holohan, Ireland
Deirdre Kelly, Ireland
Nuha Izzatunnissaa, Indonesia
Lissana Genuardi, Italy
Mike Fitzgerald, Ireland
Ger Power, Ireland
Corina Barbul, Canada
Margit Vincent, Italy
Gianluca Cangemi, Italy
Karine Vanthuyne, Professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada
Jessamy O’Dwyer, Pals for Palestine, Ireland
Lena Excrum, Germany
Louika, Greece
Kirsty Morgan, UK
Jo Murphy, Ireland
Barbara Liston, Ireland
Bernadette Morton, Ireland
Meadhbh Curran, Ireland
Luca Ghidini, Italy
Brett Davidson, USA
Mary Caherty, Ireland
Catherine Power, Ireland
Dwayne Ferdinand Wildeboer, UK
Polyana de Oliveira, USA
Dorrotya Bower, Hungary
Kate Cahoon, Germany
Zainabb Hull, Crips for Palestine, UK
Clara Joan Bauza, Belgium
Johanna Lewis, Canada
Gene Parfait, Abolish Frontex, Belgium
Donal Murphy, Ireland
Jasmine Lefebvre, Canada
Kevin O’Brien, Pals for Palestine, Ireland
Julia Falco, Canada
Suzanne Murphy, Ireland
Eleni Athanasiou, Greece
Katja Janßen, Germany
Barbara Kelly, Ireland
Zohair Chamberlain Regev, Germany
Nour Khalil, Egypt
Emma Hume, Ireland
Devorah Gordon, Canada
H. Chang, USA
Heather Beattie, Canada
Robert Nowak, USA
Katja Gavin, Germany
Captain Locky Maclean, Canada
Micheline Steele, Canada
Asma Ali, Canada
Jennifer Robinson, Canada
Annie-Marie Fuller, Ireland
Pauline Caulfield Gregg, Ireland
Zara Flynn, Ireland
Rhona Carroll, Ireland
Clare Corrigan, Ireland
Edel McPartland, Ireland
Antionette Ryan, Ireland
Eileen Brannigan, Ireland
Annie Molloy, UK
Maximilian Kratz, Germany
Noirin Ni Earcain, Ireland
Saoirse Kelly, Ireland
Savannah Garcia, France
Hossam el-Hamalawy, Germany
Aisling McDonagh, Ireland
Lisa Strohschneider, Germany
Sarah Dawson, Ireland
Art Ó Laoghaire, Ireland
Danielle Gannon, Ireland
Amy Remeikis, Australia
Aoife Gannon, Ireland
John Loudon, USA
Siobhan M Quigley, Ireland
Ali Brady, Ireland
Lorna O’Brien, Ireland
Gill Waters, Ireland
Katie Smirnova
Éadoin Curtin, Ireland
Thomas Feldmann, Germany
Suzanne Doyle, Ireland
Liam Murphy, Ireland
Emily Barrett Laois, Ireland
Laura Caffrey, Ireland
Eileen Carr, Ireland
Ciara Murphy, Ireland
Warren Kimmitt, Canada
Anna Clauer, US
Caoimhe Butterly, Ireland
Marion Houston, Ireland
Valeria Elliott, Canada
Torbjörn Björlund, Sweden
Fiona Cauchi, Ireland
Mona Happ, Germany
Karenza M Case, UK
Dr Caragh Behan, Ireland
E. Jahns, Germany
Angy Skuce, Ireland
Kieran Harkin, Ireland
Mary Flynn, Ireland
Helmut Dietrich, Germany
Ronán Conroy, Professor Emeritus, RCSI University, Ireland
Nayeon Kim, South Korea
Nichola Donnelly, Ireland
Marie Therese Connolly, Ireland
Enrico Schifani, University of Parma, Italy
Line Algoed, Belgium
Niamh Geran, Ireland
Siobhan O Neill, Ireland
Sile Murphy, Ireland
Wasil Schauseil, Germany
Roza de Jong, Netherlands
Maca Hourihane, Ireland
Saoirse O’Brien, Ireland
Lorenzo Maria Perrone, Germany
Dr Kate Marie Boyle, Ireland
David Heap, Canada
Rabia Rivzi, Canada
Benjamin Fasching-Gray, Austria
Marie Denham, Ireland
Huwaida Arraf, Human Rights Attorney, Freedom Flotilla Organiser
Alice Gambella, Italy
Anusia Grennell, Ireland
Laura Colini, University of Venice, Italy
Monika Vykoukal Judeobolschewiener*innen, Austria
Madeleine Cobbing, Freelance Environmental Consultant for NGOs, UK
Flux Krämer, Germany
Bamboo Zardetto, UK
Meredyth Yoon, USA
Cllr Kim Bryan, Wales
Bill Boggia, Scotland
Martin O’Sullivan, Ireland
Ernie Watt, Scotland
JJ Buchanan, Scotland
Friederike Gower, UK
Peter Barlow, Scotland
Rebecca McCallum, UK
Isabel Macrae, Scotland
Caroline George, UK
Kit Kittredge, Freedom Flotilla Coalition, USA
David Wardrop, UK
Dean Nasser, UK
Charles Henry Wightman, Scotland
Aileen Ford, UK
Carol Warom, UK
Jan Mayor, Scotland
Catherine Coyle, Scotland
Joan Brown, Scotland
Geef Tegengas, Netherlands
Marieken Van der Elst, Netherlands
Rita Hoppet, Scotland
Lorri Morton, France
Jules Morton, Australia

LANGUAGES

ENGLISH

DATE

15 JUNE 2025