The Freedom Flotilla circus is over – and it’s become a global laughingstock

They were “violently kidnapped,” offered kosher meals, and drank water from springs in the Holy Land. Soon after, they were sent home to comfortable lives in developed countries, glowing in the self-righteous haze of their failed performance – barely having carried anything in their teeny-tiny cutie boat. Meanwhile, as we speak, Israeli hostages are still being held: children, women, elders – families who were in their pyjamas when they were dragged from their homes on October 7th. Civilians. Not soldiers. Some of them were declared dead due to Israeli strikes by those eager to blame the IDF, yet magically reappeared alive in propaganda videos, paraded like trophies, stripped of dignity in front of millions. But no compassion. No outrage. No Red Cross. No global cry for their release. Just silence. Because to some, they’re not human – they’re just “Zionists.”

This is not solidarity. This is moral cosplay – led by people who face zero consequences, show zero nuance, have zero skin in the game, and display zero humility about their own national histories. Cringingly, many on board the Flotilla came from countries like Germany, Britain, Turkey, and France. Let’s speak plainly: I am deeply grateful to France – my host country, a nation that has given me safety, opportunity, a family, and a future. But the French are in no position to lecture others morally. Especially not when these self-appointed “emissaries of justice” come from privileged bubbles, utterly insulated from the daily realities of the millions of citizens surviving on minimum wage. There is no shortage of injustice at home. But it’s easier – more fashionable – to outsource that discomfort onto Israel.

Because let’s be honest: Jews remain the only group that can be vilified across the entire ideological spectrum. Capitalists like Henry Ford vilified them for being communists; communists vilified them for being wealthy capitalists. Now both seem to agree that Jews -who were the primary target of the worst genocide in recorded history -are the actual Nazis. As if Nazism’s driving ideology was anything but the eradication of the “Jewish danger.” That was its core, not its collateral. And yet here we are.

Our places of worship are still defaced. Synagogues and mezuzot vandalized. Insurance companies often refuse to insure our schools and centers – not because they’re broken down, but because the threat of violence is too high. Too expensive. Jews are spat on in the streets of Paris for wearing a kippa -even concealed under a baseball cap. I’ve heard the slurs firsthand: “Sale Juif,” “Allah Akbar,” or the ancient chant from Khaybar. Our children walk under armed guard. Our community lives under lockdown, but in polite society, we’re the ones accused of being fascists.

We live in a world where rape, mutilation, and torture of hostages doesn’t inspire rage – it inspires doubt. Gaslighting on an industrial scale. People demanded proof, evidence, footage, pathology reports -as if all of that would make a difference to minds already made up. As if silence or denial could erase pain. We watched what happened in the gas chambers. And we will see through all the gaslighting.

Meanwhile, activists shout “genocide” on college campuses while treating this war like a football match, complete with team colors, chants, and hooligan-like behavior. The Houthis -a group whose flag literally reads “Cursed be the Jews” – are now somehow rebranded as champions of the Palestinian cause. A flotilla sails into the Mediterranean to stage a viral moment and claims to be under attack -while hostages remain underground, mutilated, raped, unheard.

Let’s talk about double standards. Citizens from the U.S., U.K., Turkey, Spain, Germany, and across the Arab world are never held personally responsible for the crimes, colonialism, or ethnic erasures of their governments. They’re treated as individuals. But Jews? Israelis? We’re expected to carry the full weight of the state’s actions on our backs, with no right to context, history, or nuance. Only one state is denied the right to exist. Only one nation’s name sparks rage before a conversation even begins.

Israel has existed for 76 years. In that time, new nations have been born – South Sudan, East Timor, Eritrea, Kosovo. All shaped by bloodshed. All accepted. Yet only one – Israel -is subjected to a relentless campaign of delegitimization. This isn’t about policies. It’s about existence. It’s about who’s allowed to exist.

Least of all, and as much as the world would like to claim it is, it isn’t activism. This is a modern blood libel—the ancient lie that Jews are uniquely evil, rebranded for the age of hashtags. Back then, it was the myth that Jews used the blood of Christian children to bake matzah. The truth? Matzah MUST contain only flour and water, that’s why it’s so dry and chewy. If it contains other ingredients such as eggs, chocolate or even sugar it’s rendered ritually INVALID and outright forbidden in some Jewish communities, except for it to be consumed by children, the elderly or the sick. But facts didn’t matter then—and they don’t seem to matter now.

When it comes to Israel, we are told Jews aren’t native. That we’re too white to be Semitic. Biskowitzes, or Greenbaums of the world aren’t “authentic” enough because they have European-sounding names. Just like Hernández, López, or García in Mexico don’t signify royal European bloodlines, neither do Jewish surnames. They reflect geography, colonialism, diaspora, survival – not ideology or bloodline.

Moving on from the Ashkenazi Jews, let us not forget the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries, stripped of land, citizenship, and dignity. Today, their trauma is erased. Their history, denied. We are told only Palestinians are Semites now, as if that word ever meant political affiliation rather than linguistic and cultural heritage. The term “antisemitism” was coined to mask Jew-hatred in pseudoscientific respectability. Now it’s twisted again – to erase Jews from their own history.

Let’s also remember that Arab leadership historically resonated with actual Nazi ideology, discourse, and actions. They drew inspiration from European pogroms and in some cases actively cooperated with the Nazis to incite anti-Jewish violence—like the Farhud in Iraq.Amin al-Husseini, the “Palestinian” Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and an influential political and religious figure, was even declared by Hitler himself to be an “Honorary Aryan”—whatever that means. Today, Mein Kampf remains a bestseller in parts of the Arab world. But what can you expect from an educational system that yields some of the lowest numbers of translated books into national languages or new books altogether?

Shifting back to the present and this flotilla. It was not brave. It was not justice. It was a photo-op drenched in ignorance and self-congratulation. If you want to help, listen. Learn. Read. Remember.

And above all, stop dehumanizing us. Stop pretending that solidarity means pretending we don’t bleed.

You don’t have to agree with everything Israel does. But if your outrage is only triggered by the existence of Jews defending themselves, not the brutalities inflicted upon them, then you’re not an activist. You’re just another actor in a very old play, wearing new makeup and waving a new flag.

The world doesn’t need more stunts. It needs more courage. And truth.