Dozens of arts and media professionals have set sail for Gaza in a flotilla of boats known as the Thousand Madleens, among them the Bangladeshi photographer and curator, Shahidul Alam. The group, which left Otranto, Italy on 1 October and is currently in international waters, expects to be apprehended by Israeli forces within the next 24 hours.
Alam is travelling on the Conscience, which he describes as the largest private vessel to have attempted to break the siege of Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023. It contains 92 civilians from 26 countries including Israel, most of whom are either medics or arts workers.
Speaking from on board, Alam tells The Art Newspaper that these people have taken part because “Israel has specifically targeted medics and journalists over the course of its genocide in Gaza”. He describes the flotilla as “a demonstration of solidarity with people from our own profession in Palestine”.
Other civilian convoys—including the Global Sumud Flotilla, on which Greta Thunberg was detained on 1 October by Israeli security forces—were designed to carry aid to Gaza, where, under sustained Israeli attack, at least 66,000 people have been killed and 640,000 suffer from what a United Nations-backed expert panel recently dubbed a “man-made” famine. Israel has blocked food and medical aid from entering Gaza, barred all foreign journalists, and killed 223 Palestinian journalists.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza immediately following the Hamas terror attack on 7 October 2023, in which in which around 1,200 were killed and 253 people were taken hostage. Around 50 of them are still being held by Hamas.
“We are carrying supplies too because we don’t want to be a burden,” Alam explains. “But our mission is slightly different: we want to challenge the legality of the siege itself. We want to demonstrate that, when governments have just paid lip service to the horrors in Gaza, people power will overcome.”
Alam says that he was “disappointed that it has taken so long for people in the arts and cultural world to come out [in solidarity]”, but that now the tide is turning, partly because of the Thousand Madleens. “When they see the way media and arts people are responding, around the world and on this boat, they will have to answer on moral and professional grounds,” he says.
On board the Conscience, Alam is representing the Palestinian Arts and Culture Solidarity Collective (PACSOC), a volunteer group which has sought to support fellow creatives in Palestine. This has involved platforming their work and voices, and, increasingly, trying to save their lives.
“We’ve been painting slogans and artwork all across the ship itself”, he says. “I consider that a demonstration of strength.”
Groups like PACSOC also reflect a growing engagement with the Palestinian cause from across the Global South.“I really do feel like I am representing my country,” Alam says. “The response in Bangladesh has been phenomenal. In the last two or three days, I have gained 450,000 Facebook followers.”
At 70 years old, and still suffering from the effects of torture in police custody in Bangladesh in 2018, Alam knows he is taking a risk—no one on board the Conscience knows how Israeli forces will respond. But, the photographer remains undaunted.
Referencing Bangladesh’s security forces, he says: “The risk I face is minor compared to what other Bangladeshis have faced, and it is insignificant compared to what Gazans are going through now.”
