French actress Adèle Haenel joins the Global Sumud flotilla to Gaza from Tunis

French actress Adèle Haenel has announced that she will set sail for the Gaza Strip from Tunis aboard the Global Sumud flotilla. 

The ships of the Global Sumud Flotilla (‘sumud’ means ‘resilience’ in Arabic) are scheduled to reach Gaza mid-September to deliver humanitarian aid, after two attempts were blocked by Israel in June and July. 

“At this dramatic moment in history, I decided to board one of the ships participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla humanitarian mission,” explained actress and activist. “Our goal is to bring food and medicine to the people of Gaza, who are suffering from a famine deliberately orchestrated by the Israeli government,” she denounced. 

Haenel, who rose to fame in the critically acclaimed films Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Deerskin, arrived in Tunisia last weekend and took part in two days of training to prepare for the operation. 

“We are united by the desire to act peacefully to open a humanitarian corridor and break the illegal blockade imposed by the Israeli state on Gaza,” added the actress. 

More than a hundred people are expected to embark from Tunisia on Sunday. Initially planned for last Thursday, the departure was postponed due to weather conditions and delays affecting the flotilla that left Barcelona. 

Among the activists from dozens of countries on board the flotilla's ships are Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, as well as European elected officials like La France Insoumise MEP Emma Fourreau and former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.  

Haenel, 36, made her mark on the French film world by storming out of the 45th César Awards ceremony in 2020, outraged by the awarding of an honour to Roman Polanski, who has been accused of rape and sexual assault by several women. 

In 2023, the actress announced she was stepping away from the world of film for “political reasons”, sending a letter to French magazine Télérama in which she explained her reasons, denouncing the “general complacency” toward “sexual aggressors” like Gérard Depardieu and Roman Polanski. 

“I decided to politicise my retirement from cinema to denounce the general complacency of the profession towards sexual aggressors and more generally the way in which this sphere collaborates with the mortal, ecocidal, racist order of the world such as it is,” she wrote. 

The actress had previously shared that she had been abused by the director Christophe Ruggia between the ages of 12 and 15, added that the French film industry had reacted with indifference to #MeToo accusations. 

Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification announced that people in the Gaza Strip are officially facing “a man-made” famine in the territory – despite what the Israeli government has said.  

Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023, multiple UN human rights experts have stated that Israel’s military actions in Gaza amount to genocide, with the International Court of Justice finding claims of genocide plausible. 

Israel has rejected the genocide accusations and maintain that its operations are lawful acts of self-defence.