AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show from the Arctic Sunrise. That’s the name of a Greenpeace ship sailing across the Mediterranean Sea with the Global Sumud Flotilla. The flotilla includes more than 70 vessels and thousands of participants from all over the world who are sailing to Gaza in attempt to break the Israeli siege and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians. The Arctic Sunrise is accompanying and providing technical support to the flotilla in a show of solidarity for part of the trip. This flotilla builds on previous voyages to break the Israeli blockade. In 2025, the flotilla sailed with 42 boats.

Two days ago, in what the Global Sumud Flotilla calls “an unprecedented act of civilian intervention at sea,” at least a dozen vessels from the flotilla encircled one of the largest cargo ships in the world, the MSC Maya, that they believe was delivering raw materials for weapons to Israel. The MSC Maya is operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company, MSC. In a press release, the Global Sumud Flotilla said the disruption, which reportedly lasted less than three hours, was inspired by and builds on the precedent of dockworkers, who have, quote, “been on the frontlines of resisting unjust supply chains, using their collective power to halt the movement of goods tied to oppression and war,” unquote.

We go now to the Mediterranean Sea, where we’re joined by two guests. Pujarini Sen is the project lead on board the Arctic Sunrise for the Greenpeace project supporting the Global Sumud Flotilla. And Saif Abukeshek is a member of the Palestinian Global Sumud Flotilla steering committee.

You’re both sitting next to each other. Describe the scene on the ship, and, most significantly, on this Earth Day, why a Greenpeace ship is joining the Sumud Flotilla. Saif, let’s begin with you.

SAIF ABUKESHEK: Thank you for — thank you for having us. It’s an honor for me to be joining from Greenpeace.

They have provided technical support for our boats that made it possible for us to continue this journey. So, I think, you know, giving struggles a space where they can work together and understanding the impact that happens on environment, on people, in different location, goes into the same line of confronting those powers that try to confiscate resources and oppress people. So, I don’t think that there is an exclusivity in the work that we do, rather than it’s important where, wherever we can intersect, wherever we can meet each other halfway, we should do that to make sure that those struggles are supporting each other.

I’m sure my colleague can give more insight about having us here on Earth Day.

PUJARINI SEN: Absolutely. Thank you, Saif. For Greenpeace, it is an honor, and we’re absolutely humbled, to be able to support the Global Sumud Flotilla on this mission. This is — Greenpeace has a long history of creative, nonviolent action, and we have a long history of action on the water, as well, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. This flotilla is sailing to try and open a maritime corridor where governments have failed, and we hope that the support that we are providing will help them to succeed in doing that.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about this disruption of a cargo ship en route to Ashdod and Haifa ports? Tell us what happened when you intercepted the MSC Maya.

SAIF ABUKESHEK: Yes, I mean, this route of the Mediterranean — we talk about the genocide, and we talk about the siege on Gaza. It’s very important to address how this genocide and how this siege being enabled, when countries like Spain decide to vote on an embargo, military embargo, to prevent this kind of ships to go through the Mediterranean, and they try to find other ports, when they don’t declare the content of what they have on the cargo, and they just sail to maintain and enable the Israeli government by providing them with the needed materials to continue committing genocide and maintain the illegal siege on Gaza.

People need to react. Governments are allowing this to happen when they don’t take action. Yesterday, the European Union voted to maintain the association agreement with Israel, which violates all the principles and values the European Union has, and still they voted to maintain it and not stop that association agreement. So, this, we were discussing always that when the system fails, civil society needs to step in. And I heard an inspiring speech today from Fabien, one of the directors of Greenpeace, who said it’s not actually that the system is failing. The system is designed to do what it’s doing right now, to maintain operation, to maintain the confiscation of resources and to oppress people.

And therefore, we have to confront this. We have to confront these routes. This is the first civilian action that challenged — of a flotilla, that challenged this route, that challenged, as you said, one of the biggest cargo ships in the world. And we approached the cargo ship, because we are with sailing boats, legally. It is lawful for us to sail in the Mediterranean, and any cargo ship need to change the route.

What is very interesting, looking at the map, that this cargo ship changed its route in our direction, instead of going in the other direction against the space where we were. We tried to communicate. We tried to show signs to explain for them that participating in delivering these materials to Israel is part of complicity.

We cannot just wait on symbolic statements right now, on people saying that we condemn or we don’t support or we are in favor, or concrete ones. And many people come to ask about the flotilla being a symbolic action. So many years we have of historical nonviolent direct action. It is very strange when we start to define nonviolent direct action with symbolism, the Salt March of Mahatma Gandhi, the hunger strikes of prisoners, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people who marched around the street, the three years of strike in Palestine in 1936. And there is a long, long history. Those all are nonviolent direct action. The flotilla is just one action more within this process.

AMY GOODMAN: Pujarini Sen, we just have about 30 seconds, but Greenpeace typically targets fossil fuels and corporations. Why did you join this flotilla?

PUJARINI SEN: Greenpeace does, does target fossil fuel companies. But like I said, we also have a long history of nonviolent direct action. Having said that, fossil fuel companies also benefit from wars, from genocide. For example, Greenpeace in Norway has taken the fossil fuel giant Equinor to court because of their ties with the Delek Group, which is an Israeli company that enables the genocide. So we don’t view these issues as separate. They’re very interrelated. And we’ve also worked in Spain, for example, and in Canada to push for an arms embargo. So, these, for us, these are — these issues are interconnected and need to be addressed together, and that’s why we are supporting the Global Sumud Flotilla now.

AMY GOODMAN: Pujarini Sen, I want to thank you for being with us, project lead for Greenpeace on board the Arctic Sunrise. Pujarini and Saif are joining us from the Mediterranean Sea on board a ship. Saif Abukeshek is a Palestinian activist and member of the steering committee of the Global Sumud Flotilla.

And that does it for today’s show. I’ll be traveling to cities where the new documentary about Democracy Now! called Steal This Story, Please! is opening theatrically. Tonight, I’ll be at the Roxie in San Francisco and at the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley. Then we head to Seattle, Thursday and Friday, for 7 p.m. screenings at the SIFF Uptown Cinema. I’ll be with the co-director of the film, Carl Deal. Then, on Saturday, to Portland, Oregon, for two screenings at the Cinema 21. On Sunday, I’ll be back at the IFC Center in New York, Sunday evening, and then to Toronto, to Boston, to Washington, to Baltimore and beyond. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.