Former Marine Puts Down Her Arms and Sets Sail to Gaza on Humanitarian Mission
Israel Threatens to Intercept the Flotilla
At 11:24 AM today, I received a message on Signal from Jessica Clotfelter, a former Marine and resident of Windsor, Illinois who is at sea on a small boat to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. She is part of the fleet of 50 boats on the Global Sumud Flotilla. The flotilla is trying to break Israel’s blockade of aid to the Palestinian people they have been murdering for 724 days.
Her message said:
“Getting the word we will be intercepted (by Israel) tonight. I just ask that you remember us. Remember that a few regular people tried what whole nations were too cowardly to do. We tried, Kim. And if just ONE more person carries Palestine on their lips it will have been worth it.”
Jessica told me she joined the Marines at age 17 to help pay for college. She served from 2008 - 2012 on the security detail for Presidential Helicopter Squadron Marine One. In 2017, she graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After her experience in the Marines and as a defense contract overseas, she became an activist for peace. One of her buddies from the Marine Corps is on the Ohwayla boat with her.
It is now 2:18 PM central time and I have not heard back from Jessica after sending her a voice message of encouragement. It is night time now at sea. She and the fleet are just one-to-two days away from reaching Gaza. People from 44 different countries are on the fleet.
Rally For The Flotilla
Jessica’s mother, Shelly, and her brother, Trevor, came to Champaign on Sunday to participate in a local rally of support for the flotilla. A caravan of more than 20 cars decked out in Palestinian flags traveled slowly through downtown Champaign to the boat house at Crystal Lake Park for a symbolic launch of boats and speeches. We heard from Dua Aldasouqi of the Champaign-Urbana Muslim Action Committee and Trevor Clotfelter.
“Jessica’s really been an educator for myself and my family and for everyone she’s in touch with,” Trevor said. “It’s a really positive action, the steps she has taken. People like her and everyone here today represent what peaceful action will look like.”
Local Media Suppression of Central Illinois’ Participation and Support of the Flotilla
Seventy-five people attended the rally Sunday. And although local media were invited to attend, none showed.
I spoke with WCIA journalist Brandon Merano on Tuesday, September 23 asking if WCIA would be interested in a story about a rural woman from Windsor, former UIUC graduate and former Marine, who was putting her life on the line for Palestinians and he said he was interested. I connected Brandon to Jessica on Signal and he messaged her the same day: “Thanks for the connection Kimberlie. Hope you are safe Jessica.”
I reached out by phone, email and Signal to Brandon from WCIA several times since my initial contact with him and he only wrote back once. “”I will bring this to our assignment editor’s attention and see what they would like to do.”
Since then all we have heard is silence from Brandon and WCIA. No original reporting from The News-Gazette or The Daily Illini either. Illinois Public Media aired a story about the first drone attacks on the flotilla and Jessica’s response. (I retired from Illinois Public Media in 2023).
The lack of accurate information about Palestinians and a virtual media blackout of any narrative except for the one being pushed by the Israeli government is extremely frustrating to Jessica.
“There’s a total media blackout in the United States,” she told me. “So I might get very, you know, frustrated with people stateside. But I also understand that they are being gaslit and gatekept by their government on purpose. Because we (the USA) are complicit in what is happening, they are our bombs. We support this policy. We say Israel has a right to defend itself. Well, why don’t Palestinians have that right?”
Who Cares? Many of Us Do! Here’s Why Jessica Cares
Jessica told me she was motivated to get involved after befriending a Palestinian mother from Gaza named Asma. Asma has five children and extended family in Gaza. All have been displaced multiple times since Israel’s genocidal campaign and were living exposed on the sand near the Mediterranean Sea the last time Jessica heard from her.
“About a year and a half, almost two years ago, I got a message request on Instagram from this woman, Asma, and she was basically sending out all of these messages to a ton of people to get anybody to respond to her,” Jessica told me on September 13 in a live WEFT-FM radio interview while she was at sea. “And I just felt the tug in my heart, for whatever reason, accepted the message. I responded, and it has turned into the most beautiful friendship of my lifetime.”
While off the coast of Tunisia and preparing to sail again, Jessica said “There’s just so much camaraderie and hustle. People are working on other ships and sewing sails, we are delivering water to some boats. There’s some hustle, you know, cleaning oil tanks. I mean, it’s just total unit cohesion amidst all of these boats. I see about five in front of me. I see the family boat in front of me, which, as you probably know, was the first one to get firebombed when we were in Tunis. And spirits are great. Everybody’s just feeling super good.”
Higher Ground radio co-host Aaron Ammons asked Jessica why she was willing to put her life on the line. “You know, it’s not lost on me that the people that are being tormented and genocided, you know, are literally Jesus’s people,” Jessica said. “And for people who don’t know, you know, Muslims believe in Jesus. They refer to him as a prophet, and they believe that he will return as well. Muslims and Christians we are kin. We are cousins. And, you know, I just couldn’t sit by and watch. I’m a mother as well. And I can’t hug and kiss my child without thinking of those children. I’m a teacher. I couldn’t teach my students without looking out and seeing those kids in Palestine, which they haven’t been in school for two years. And, you know, no university still stands in Gaza. We have witnessed schools that were, you know, housing survivors be bombed. I’ve seen just the most heinous atrocities. So as far as what motivated me, it’s just simply the right thing to do.”
It’s now 3:00 PM and I am picking up my tween from school. She tells me that during school today CNN-10 had a news story about the flotilla. “What did the news story say?” I asked. “It talked about how they were getting attacked by drones but still kept going.”
It’s 3:27 PM. I hope Jessica and the rest of the peace lovers and humanitarians have not been stopped by Israel on their way to Gaza. I will keep trying to connect with her. Meanwhile, here’s what you can do: Befriend Palestinians in your local community; follow Palestinians from Gaza and the Global Sumud Flotilla on social media and amplify their voices; get loud and tell your Congress people and local officials to stop spending our money on bombs sent to Israel to kill Palestinians.
UPDATE: 6:45PM CST. Jessica replies to my email. She is feeling “oddly calm” and has sent me a link to the live stream of the boats on the flotilla.
Peace.
