I was incredibly intrigued once I heard Wendy Goldsmith, a Western Alumni, is working with the International Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC). I had to hear about her experience doing flotilla work and being a participant on the Women’s Boat to Gaza in 2016. I got the opportunity to interview Wendy and I am honored to hear about her life and experiences. The International Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is a grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement, composed of campaigns and initiatives from all over the world, working to end the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza. FFC was formed after the 2010 Freedom Flotilla mission, to coordinate action between many different campaigns in their efforts against the siege of the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip.
Tell me about yourself
My name is Wendy Goldsmith. I have been a social worker in London, Ontario for about twenty five years now. I have three kids. They are all teenagers: 19, 17, and 14; they keep me very busy and happy. I’ve worked a lot with kids in this city, and with a lot of families experiencing poverty and various challenges in life. I love my work and I am very interested in making the world a better place.
While you were studying at Western, did anything spark your interest in the Palestinian struggle?
You know, that is a really good question. When I was studying, our focus was on issues close to home such as poverty, addiction, child abuse and neglect. Those are the main issues that we really looked at; there wasn’t a whole lot of discussion about international issues to be honest, and that is something I feel like is really lacking in the social work program. If I had a choice, it would really be something that I would bring into the curriculum. If you want to know the truth, it was really through the social media that I learned about what was truly happening in Palestine. So I should say that I am a middle aged, middle class, white, privileged, woman who grew up in suburbia. So when I grew up, I grew up with the awareness that the Middle East was a problem over “there” that was religious and didn’t have to do with “us.” I do not feel like my parents were particularly racist but they were ignorant, they did not have the information. So it was really through social media that I asked more questions and broadened my awareness. Particularly, the pictures that were being spread, after Operation Cast Lead; the pictures of babies being sprayed with white phosphorus and their horrific scenes that came out of that. I’ve always had a very strong social conscious, but it was really then that I said we really need to do something. I just can’t click buttons anymore, there has to be something else we can do to help the Palestinians that are suffering. So no, Western was not the place that I learned about Palestine.
Why did you participate in the women’s boat to Gaza?
Well, that is a longer story. So after Cast Lead, we organized in Canada and it was right around the time of the Gaza Freedom March. There were 40 Canadians that participated in that march and David Heap and I were the organizers that got together and went to Cairo with the intention of breaking the blockade through the Rafah border. We weren’t allowed to, but it was the catalyst for a whole lot of organizing that happened after that. 1300 activists descended on Cairo at one time and it was amazing. I met the most incredible people and shared so many amazing stories and moments with those people and learned so much about organizing and about solidarity work in that short week. That was the catalyst for Canadians getting organized in a meaningful way around flotilla work. That was the beginning. The seed was planted then. Then the Mv Mavi Marmara happened. As you know, 10 activists were murdered and so again we could not sit back and see this happen. So we called on some of the allies that we had already created through the Gaza Freedom March and got together to see what else we could do. The flotilla work through Free Gaza was happening and we needed to help them so we realized we need a Canadian boat. So that is what we did. So that was the beginning. We sent a number of boats through the Flotillas.
So organizing with the Women’s Boat to Gaza is very challenging. It is an international coalition where men and women from around the world from different backgrounds, different perspectives and different orientations toward the challenge. We all agree the blockade has to end but other than that there is not a whole lot that we necessarily agree on, there are many that we do agree on but it is tough organizing. So in a frustrating moment, two woman from the USA and I went to have pizza. We were in Rome and we had an international meeting there. We were frustrated and were like, “Let’s go for lunch.” As we were chatting and eating, one of us said, “You know what if we sent women; what if we just sent women to meet these male oppressors in the middle of the ocean? What would happen then?” We were excited and fostered the idea a little bit and went back to the meeting and at that moment the committee was not ready to hear it. Five years later low and behold, it had gone through the filters and people said, “Yeah, let’s send women.” So it was really exciting for me!
Why didn’t your boat specifically make it out to Sicily?
There were two boats: the Zaytouna and Amal. We had hoped to sail the Amal but unfortunately just outside of the ports the engine died. We are still investigating that and figuring out what happened. But what we knew in the moment was that it was irreparable. We tried to get it fixed but we couldn’t and so that was a very sad moment. We were quick on our feet though. We actually purchased a third boat, the Amal 2, and we had hoped that she would sail with the Zaytouna; however, she needed a bit of work and wasn’t ready to sail by the time our crew was ready because we insisted on having female captain and crew. So it was really challenging in general to find any crew, let alone a female captain and crew, but it was important to our principles. We stuck to those and we had some wonderful crew but they were just not able to meet the timelines. So this is the thing with this kind of organizing, you have to just be willing to go with the flow. It was very disappointing and we had to make some really difficult decisions about who was going to be on the Zaytouna and who wasn’t going to sail. As a result, there were no Canadians that sailed on the last lag, which was very sad for all of us because it is important I think for us to be able to influence our government’s policies. So we don’t have that push this time but we will next time.
What was it like to be on the other end, especially when Israeli soldiers boarded the Zaytouna Oliva? I have talked to people who have experienced being on the other end. I have heard once the Israeli soldiers board the boat the communication is cut. So what were the feelings you had during this time?
I have been through this feeling before because David himself was on the Tahrir along with other friends of mine, and that moment when the communication is cut; it’s like your heart is sinking into the pit of your stomach and you know there is nothing else you can do in that very moment except start the next ball rolling, which is contacting embassies, lawyers, family, and blitzing social media. For me, I take a moment; I feel the sadness, the worry and the concern. Then I get right on the horse again and try to get my friends home and capitalize on that moment. It is almost as if you are human for a moment and then you have to stop and put that aside and move forward and just do the work that needs to be done.
Has the Canadian government intervened in anyway, specifically with the Women’s Boats to Gaza or with any previous flotillas that have been sent to Gaza?
They have been traditionally very silent. They have said nothing about the Women’s Boat to Gaza. Usually we are cautioned ahead of time that it is an unsafe place to travel to. For example, the travel advisory said, don’t go there but that is the extent. There has really been no support from the Canadian government. I believe that they would rather just ignore us and they do a very good job at that. The mainstream media is also complicit in silence. So we tried very hard to engage mainstream media and to no avail. We pitched a documentary to CBC. I called CBC when the Women’s boat to Gaza participants were kidnapped and said this is a story happening now, and nobody followed it.
Have you been threatened in anyway professionally regarding your career due to your involvement with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition?
So far I haven’t, but as I said to you earlier, I am very careful. I can’t associate the place that I work with the work that I do outside of work. So as long as I keep them separate, so far it has been okay. But I am certainly aware that employers or anybody can look at my Facebook and social media and see what I’m doing. I am very alert, aware, and I know that at any time this could be an issue that spills into my professional career, but I do it anyway.
Tell me about the women who were involved as participants.
They were amazing women. One of the best parts of this whole experience was being able to spend time with these incredibly strong, powerful, brilliant, and wise women from all around the world. So New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, America, Canada, and Italy. I am not naming them all, but those are from the top of my head. These were extremely diverse women who came to this work through very diverse ways. Some of them had personal connections in Palestine, others like me have a strong sense of justice, others wanted to use their political and professional voices to bring forward the stories in Palestine. All of us came together around wanting freedom for Palestine and Gaza in particular, and really fostering compassion for the women and children in Gaza who are living in the world’s largest open air prison. So sitting and talking with the participants and sharing their energy was the coolest thing ever. We made forever connections. These women are forever sisters. There is nothing that will change that bond. I could see them never again or I could see them five years from now and we could pick up right where we were. So it doesn’t matter how many boats Israel steals, they cannot steal those connections. They can’t.
How are ways people can support the campaign? Especially after the boat has already been sent. What can we do now?
You can always go to: http://canadaboatgaza.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/CanadaBoatGaza/?fref=ts
We let our supporters know what is going on. So even though the boat has been taken and confiscated, there is still a lot of work to be done. First of all, we want to get our boat back, but we will also be thinking about what our future involvement with the Flotilla is. Also a huge part of our job is raising awareness here. We know our Canadian government is apathetic and Trudeau is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The policies remain the same and our complicity in war crimes remains the same. It’s even more dangerous now that we are selling all these weapons. So I think it is really important that we keep the heat on educating and I think university campuses are one of the places that we really need to continue to make a presence. I know Palestinian student solidarity associations suffer and struggle on many campuses. So the students need to know that there are members in the community who are supporting them, behind them, and who will speak up for them when and if the administration comes down on them. We are all in this together. What we need to do is continue to build and grow our connections. London, Ontario has been particularly incredible in its terms of activism and organizing. As long as I have been involved, there has always been students involved in our work. The energy is great and I really think we can do really good things here.