US veterans’ final message from the Global Sumud Flotilla before being intercepted by Israel

The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.

Marc Steiner:

Welcome to the Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us as of this taping, the Gaza Sumud Flotilla has been at sea for 47 days, over 50 ships with people from 45 countries, bringing food, necessities and solidarity to the people of Gaza. And it’s called Sumud because Sumud means steadfastness and perseverance in Arabic. It’s a central theme and concept in the Palestinian identity. And as we begin this interview, Israelis are preparing to intercept and arrest all of the Flotilla participants evenly in Spain are sending military ship to provide assistance and possible rescues if needed. So the Flotilla activists are literally putting their lives on the line to end the slaughter in Gaza, to bring needed food and medicine to break the blockade. And we’re joined today by two of them. Philip Tottenham is a Marine Corps veteran member of Veterans of Peace, a human rights activist. He was leader of the 40 day veterans and allies fast for Gaza and reports regularly from the 46 foot sailboat Oela. Jessica Coltfelter also served in the Marines. She was part of the security detail for the Presidential Helicopter Squadron Marine One, and worked as a defense contractor for Triple Canopy. She refused to participate to perpetuate imperialism, became an activist, an educator, and serves as an anti-fascist librarian in rural and marginalized communities in the pursuit of mindful liberation. So both join us. They’re both serving on the 46 foot sailboat Oela whose crew are mostly veterans.

Once again, Jessica and Philip, thank you for joining us today. It’s really an honor and a pleasure to have you both with us putting our lives on the line for the God and people and to end the madness and the slaughter. And I really want to know from the both of you as us veterans, as peace activists, why you put your life line here to join this flotilla to go to Gaza.

Philip Tottenham:

Great question. A lot of unpacking for me personally, after having been brainwashed in the Marines and bootcamp, as we’re 18 year olds, our prefrontal cortexes aren’t fully developed and they break us down for two months and then build us back up in their image, singing chants, basically ready to fight, ready to kill, ready to die, but never will. And so for me, it took about 10 years after I got out, I got out in 2002, a little bit sooner. 2010 is when I started unpacking and everything and following the money and realizing that our country, that we are in the belly of the beast, that we are, the empire that we are together with Israel and some other countries, the axis of evil. And me especially being a descendant of original Texas settler, the old 300 that came along with Stephen F. Austin and slaughtered and murdered thousands of indigenous people. It was personal for me and I couldn’t stand to watch another genocide unfold of indigenous peoples on our watch. And so that’s why I’m here. And just, I’ve been to the West Bank and seen and felt the beauty of the Palestinian people, their genuine hospitality and how much more alike we are with them than anybody in our government and the billionaire class.

Marc Steiner:

And Jessica, what about you?

Jessica Coltfelter:

Quite frankly, my heart was not going to let me joy, peace. I think if you’ve been paying attention even a little bit at all for not just the last two years, but for several, you will not have peace in your heart. And I learned very quickly what imperialism looked like in the Marine Corps. And I learned very quickly what it meant to be a woman on the side of imperialism with the violence that is done to women’s bodies. And I could no longer stand perpetuated. I went to Kuwait in 2014 as a Defend contractor. And even though we were not a military unit, I worked with a lot of ex-military members and I saw the same level of imperialism there, the same violence against women’s bodies. And it was in 2014 that Michael Brown was shot and killed in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. And my buddies at the time that were all former military there in Kuwait were making light of it, making jokes, making some horrific memes. And that was after what I had seen in the Marine Corps. And I knew right then and there, I can never do this again. I will never do this again.

Marc Steiner:

As I get to this next thought, I want to tell you both that I spoke to a number of my Jarhead friends last night and they all sent their best in solidarity with what you two are doing. Thank you. A bunch of ’em are Jewish Marine Corps Vietnam vets, and they’re sending their best

Philip Tottenham:

Oh wow.

Marc Steiner:

To both of you.

Philip Tottenham:

Thank you. Please. Thank

Marc Steiner:

You. So coming back, I really want to know what you all mean when you talk about refusing to perpetuate imperialism and why you take that stance, what that means to you all both as veterans.

Jessica Coltfelter:

Sure. Yeah. Imperialism is an annexation of resources that are not yours and a killing of culture. And when I speak specifically about women’s bodies, our agency was taken away in the military, sexual assault, sexual violence. It’s so ENT that there’s its own term military sexual

Marc Steiner:

Trauma.

Jessica Coltfelter:

And I don’t know a single female marine that I served with, but that I was friends with that did not have that happen to them. So when I specifically talk about that and the female body, that’s what I mean. And in Kuwait, again, I was working for a defense contracting agency. It was the same thing that these men were perpetuating against women who were there from the Philippines and Ethiopia to work and left with trauma and with scars. So for me, that’s what I mean.

Marc Steiner:

That could be a whole conversation on itself. I mean, absolutely. Yeah, that’s horrendous. And what were you about to say? I’m sorry.

Philip Tottenham:

For me, it was unpacking major general Smedley Butler. In bootcamp, they taught us about all his medals and that he’s the most decorated marine of all times. But then you go to find out his political stances and his book that he wrote that wore his racket and saying that he was a front man for capitalism for oil companies. And also growing up as I did, my great-grandfather was good friends with LBJ before my great-grandfather owned Lone Star Brewery. He sold preens and they drove around from ranch to ranch and LBJ was his gate boy and he would pay LBJ in P liens. But it’s that proximity to power that I’ve seen. The good old boy club that I grew up in with my family and my older sister is good friends with Ashley Kavanaugh, who as you know is Supreme Court Justice. Brett Kavanaugh’s wife. My nephew’s godmother is Ashley. My brother-in-law is the head of government relations for ExxonMobil.

Marc Steiner:

Damn.

Philip Tottenham:

Yeah. And so it was George Bush that George w that introduced Ashley to Brett. And so the country life, just watching and seeing the good old boy club, the connections that are spread throughout the country to Washington DC that are among the wealthy and the privileged, it is a good old boys club and nobody else is invited.

Marc Steiner:

Sounds like your butt’s going to get disowned

Philip Tottenham:

Already bad,

Marc Steiner:

But lemme talk about what you think you both think this flotilla is going to accomplish and why you decided to do this. I mean, A, you’re putting your lives on the line that you haven’t done that before as Marines, but to put your life on the line, we don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re not sure how the Israeli Navys Israel is going to intervene and what they might do. So talk about what drove you to do this act, this particular act. Jessica, why don’t you start? I

Jessica Coltfelter:

Had seen the previous Flotillas that launched not just this summer, but in past years including the 2010 Flotilla where participants were murdered.

Marc Steiner:

Right.

Jessica Coltfelter:

And when I saw the call to action for veterans over the summer, my heart already knew that I was going before my name was even on the manifest. And I just followed my heart with that. I let it lead me like a compass. And I ended up here. And I’m from a rural area in Illinois where Palestine is not on the people’s lips. Palestine is not a topic of conversation. And I thought if I could come here, maybe I could bridge the gap of understanding and education the folks back home who are good people, but who are misinformed by design and by policy. And so that was a huge motivation for me to come here. I’m a mother as well, and I think it’s important that my son sees that I would go and this that other kids, my students from third and fourth grade that I taught see that their teacher, Ms. Jess would come out here, that those weren’t just words that I said that I taught, that I meant them.

Marc Steiner:

Wow. You teach second and third graders?

Jessica Coltfelter:

Yes, sir.

Marc Steiner:

Whoa. Okay. Philip, what were you about to say? I’m sorry.

Philip Tottenham:

Yeah, for me, it’s when I went to Palestine for the first time in 2023. It was during Ramadan actually when all the three Abrahamic face Holy Weeks overlapped. I was there for five weeks and went there on my own. And just the suffering, I went there to see with my own eyes what I had been researching for nine to 10 years, starting with in 2014 with the massacres in Gaza. But what I saw for the first time in my life were two dead 15-year-old boys that were shot dead by the IOF for throwing rocks against them when they had full riot gear on. And to see that, to see the throwing the apparentness of the occupation and apartheid, that immediately reminded me of the Texas Mexico border, how the border had crossed the indigenous people, just the amount of suffering because of white settler colonialism and the US War machine and empire inspired me and just out of sheer desperation to make a wave, I took a sledgehammer to the apartheid wall in Bethlehem being told by all my Palestinian friends that I’d be shot and I wasn’t. So after about two minutes of swinging the sledgehammer, I was just exhausted from doing it and dropped it and walked away. And so coming back from that and just going to protest and protest after protest after protest, and not seeing anything change or getting anywhere, I knew I had to put my life on the line again because in my heart that I was called to Palestine for the first time in 2023 and my heart is called again and I can’t not answer my heart’s call.

Marc Steiner:

So I want to come back to the Illa here, and for our listeners that don’t really have a sense of why you’re there and what’s going on, let’s just start with this. What’s the underlying reason? What’s the pull and passion of this flotilla What it wants to accomplish, and how many ships do you have? How many people are involved?

Philip Tottenham:

There’s three things. We want to bring in aid, immediate aid, which we all have on board, all of our ships and as many places that we can store it as possible. So to break the siege and to establish a humanitarian corridor for governments, right? Because we’re civilian led and we don’t have nearly the resources that governments do, that our governments have failed us to establish that humanitarian corridor for ships to come in and be able to sustain and provide that much needed aid to Gaza.

Jessica Coltfelter:

I also want to speak to the magic of the participants that are here. There are over 45 tributes that are represented here with hundreds of participants. And we’ve all taken and believe in nonviolence. We’ve taken an oath of nonviolence, but we’re mothers and fathers, there’s grandparents here, retirees, teachers. I’ve met electricians, firefighters, natural builders, professors, reporters. I mean, every service industry that you can think of is represented here and it’s across the globe who all see the light of God in our siblings in Palestine and who refuse to allow this apathy and appeasement from our governments to continue. And our training in Barcelona, it was really magical to meet all of these delegates who believe in the same thing as we do and who are willing to do the same thing and break this illegal siege on Gaza. And we set sail

Marc Steiner:

When people in movements do certain things. They put their lives in the line. When I was really young and a civil rights worker in Mississippi, we could have been killed at any moment. But so you’re putting yourselves out there in a situation that could take your own life, and that’s a huge step to take that you all took. And I want to talk just about a little bit from the two of you about what pushed you into this. I mean, you’re not directly involved in Israel Palestine, you both served our country as Marines, but you’re not involved in that struggle. You’re neither Palestinian nor Jewish. So what drove you to do what you’re doing?

Philip Tottenham:

Yeah, we’re human, right? It’s

Marc Steiner:

Humanity.

Philip Tottenham:

We don’t let the pride that we were instilled with in bootcamp and in the Marines affect us anymore. We shed that pride and that ego and that pride causes apathy, right? Love is not proud. We serve humanity. We serve love unconditionally, we believe, and I think I speak for everybody. I mean I can’t, but no human life is more valuable or less valuable than the other. And we’re sitting here watching human lives and children and innocent men and beautiful men and women and elderly getting slaughtered and starved to death. If we believe that nobody else’s life is more important than why not put our lives on the line?

Jessica Coltfelter:

Absolutely.

Marc Steiner:

What do you want to add to that, Jessica

Jessica Coltfelter:

Every soul alive right now, we exist in the same crux and time. And that’s got to mean something. It means something to me. There is no distinction of separation that exists between us. And for those of you or listeners who think that we are different, I just want to ask who got to you? Why do you think that it’s important that we’re all here at the same time that we’re siblings in humanity and this disease of apathy is so pervasive, especially in my culture, that it’s akin to toughness and that is the opposite of evolution. I don’t know what kind of perverse evolution prevents you from hearing screams and scenes of suffering. I won’t be a part of it. My heart won’t allow me. Bill is essentially saying the same thing. It was a must. It was compulsory. To be quite honest. I didn’t think twice about it. And I think that you will find that same thing with a lot of the participants here. Over 26,000 people applied to be in this flotilla,

Marc Steiner:

26,000

Jessica Coltfelter:

People. Yes, and a couple hundred were selected. And I know that there were many, many more around the globe who wanted to come, but because of the demands of capitalism and the demands of our lives, were unable to do that. And so I’m honored and privileged to be among those ranks. And I want my friends and family in Palestine to see not just me, but all of these people, all of these strangers who are coming together out of love, out of loving kindness and loving awareness, willing to do this.

Marc Steiner:

26,000. Let me just stop there for just a second. So that’s a lot of people. So strategically, what do you two think this means if there are 26,000 people willing to put their lives on the line in a flotilla to stop the slaughter and Gaza, does this mean A, that what you two and the others are doing now will continue and happen again with all these other people wanting to go? And how does this fit into the strategy to stop the slaughter and killing in Gaza and destruction of Palestinian people? What do you both think? Granted,

Jessica Coltfelter:

One of the points of this mission was establish a humanitarian aid corridor. So maybe some of those 26,000 couldn’t be selected for this one, but the next one will come. Hopefully there won’t be another need for a next one. But if there are, we’ve got the ranks ready.

Philip Tottenham:

Yeah, I think it shows that we’re seeing through the world is seeing through the lives of the empire of the American Israeli axis of Evil empire. And I just want to say that as Marines we’ve and served, and in the military, we serve the empire. So why not serve humanity? And I just want to add that before I found Veterans for Peace and about faith and Code Pink, I was kind of doing this on my own. And it’s really through plugging into these organizations and getting organized. The way that the war machine is organized and has been organized is how we combat this. And so I really, we encourage people to sign up for and plug into whatever organizations that they align with. But for military veterans, for Peace, and you don’t have to be a member or a veteran, you can be an associate member, but about Face is also veterans and then Code Pink obviously. And other organizations like Fsna that help me get plugged in with bringing my idea of the veterans and Allies 40 day fast for Gaza that we did a couple months ago. And just how that grew. I wouldn’t have been able be here right now without plugging into those organizations and veterans piece specifically for me.

Marc Steiner:

So just before I walked in the studio, I was just checking the latest news about what’s happening and it appears as if Israel’s about to take on the Flotilla. So talk to all people listening today about what that means for two of you and for the rest on the Flotilla and how you respond to that. If that Israeli navy in fact attacks and takes over the Flotilla, what will your response be? Jessica

Jessica Coltfelter:

We have trained for a lot of contingencies. There’s a lot of things that can happen. And I think one aspect that veterans bring to this is that we can plan and we can adapt, improvise. So we’ve been pretty fluid with our contingency plans. We do drills every day. We get in meetings every day and discuss what the plan of attack, what our exercise plan looks like.

Marc Steiner:

I understand, right? Yep. And what’s the situation right now that you’re in, just in terms of the actual threat? And you must have to be on a constant alert.

Jessica Coltfelter:

Absolutely. We post a pretty vigilant two man fire watch every night. Sorry, what we’re posting fire watch. We have our daily briefs. The last that I heard was that Israel had called for civilians to get out in their own civilian boats and form a blockade and meet us. So we’ll see what that looks like if that comes to fruition.

Marc Steiner:

So I want to ask you two very specific things here. Things that you both, that have been said out of the flotilla and that you’ve said, and one is, you had mentioned earlier in our conversation that you’re looking at the Israelis at this moment who were in the Army about to attack the Flotilla as cowards. What do you mean by that?

Philip Tottenham:

Yeah, right. They have all the weapons in the world. They’re the most advanced military because of the United States and the access of evil. And they’re pointing and fighting against unarmed, innocent civilians and us as a humanitarian organization and flotilla, right, that they’re threatening us. So how hard is it to not have fear to go against someone that’s unarmed the Palestinians, the courage that they have inspire us. They’re the reasons that we’re doing this to face what they faced not only for the last two years of the genocide, but for 77 years that this has been going on under the guise of American lies and Israeli lies, white settler colonial lies.

Marc Steiner:

Did you want to add to that, Jessica We only had,

Jessica Coltfelter:

Sure. It’s not an accident when children are showing up with bullets in their head. It’s not an accident when a hospital gets bombed and the rescue workers that come to the hospital to rescue those under the rubble also get bombed. These aren’t accidents. We see a lot of violent action. And then apologies later, just like with the Qatari delegations targeted and attacked. You can’t tell me that that wasn’t without the approval of United States, but just within the last 24 or 48 hours, the entities, Lord Ruler has apologized for it, but he didn’t apologize for the violence, then he apologized that he misses Target. That’s not an accident.

Marc Steiner:

And when you both talk about follow the money, what does that mean to you? What does that follow the money?

Philip Tottenham:

Follow the money really is simple as far as following the donors of our congressional that are supposed to be our representatives, but they serve money. They’re narcissists that serve their own. And so you look across both aisles and you see the same donors time and time again. And like I said, I’ve had this inside view from my brother-in-law being the head of government relations with ExxonMobil. They write the bills and have ’em pass ’em. And the majority of the time of what our representatives are doing are raising money for themselves and for the DNC and RNC machines that are the two wings of the same bird.

Marc Steiner:

So with this approaching attack on the Flotilla A, I’m curious what you think your next steps are, and when they come to block you from going into Gaza, what are your next moves when you get back? Should do this again? So what do you think your next moves are in all of this? Because they’re clearly about to stop you all from getting the Gaza.

Philip Tottenham:

I mean, we were trained before this in nonviolence, and so that’s what we are going to do when and if they decide to interdict us, which we anticipate that they likely will, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re not going to resist. We’re going to be do our training, get up on board, let them illegally kidnap us as a war crime, and we anticipate that they’ll be waiting for us there. I think tonight at 4:00 AM we reach the red zone and we think that they’re waiting for us closer to shore. And we’ve heard that there’ll be a floating prison basically for us this time, since this is the biggest flotilla in history. And so in the past where they’ve escorted a ship in to the immigration jails, they may do that, but I think that’s what we’ve heard is a floating prison to get us there. And then there’s the Looming terrorism charges. And so there’s a lot of conversations that I’ve had with my sons preparing them one way or the other, uncomfortable tearful conversations, heartfelt conversations, just in case they do decide to get violent and attack us and go and take their masks completely off. Have had to have those conversations. But yeah, so those are the options that we’re preparing for. Oh, sorry, the boat really rocking right now.

Marc Steiner:

That’s okay. I’m going to let you all go in just, I know you have things to do. But Jessica, I mean, because one of the things that after reading about this and listening to the two of you, I think people have to understand the courage, what it takes to be a nonviolent military warrior, which is what you are.

Jessica Coltfelter:

Yes, sir. It takes a paradigm shift. It takes perspective shift, but it’s a higher vibration, quite frequency. It’s a higher resonance. It’s easy to tap into those lower level emotions of wanting to fight back. But I’m compelled by the consciousness of Christ. And when I say consciousness of Christ, I mean the person that he was, the decisions that he made. And I can’t say that if I’m not willing to do it myself. And I just want to add that the, we’re called the Global Saud Flo Tillis. Saud means perseverance, it means steadfastness. And it was named after our siblings in Palestine. And it’s something that I take to heart and that I’ve adopted.

Marc Steiner:

We’re going to stay close as we can to you all and keep this story alive and keep following up and not letting it go. And you’re putting your lives on the line to stop the slaughtering Gaza at this moment. So I want to thank you both so much for the work you’re doing. Thank you for being out there. So please stay safe and we will stay in touch. But thank you both so much for your bravery and for your putting your lives on line and fighting for the Palestinian people. Thank you.

Philip Tottenham:

Thank you. Thank you for what you do.

Marc Steiner:

Once again, thank you to Jessica Coltfelter and Philip Tottenham for joining us today and for putting our lives on the line for the people in Gaza. And thanks to Cameron Granadino for running the program today. Our audio editor, Stephen Frank, and producer Rosette Sewali, we’re making it all work behind the scenes and everyone here at the World News, we’re making this show possible. We’ll keep following the Flotilla, bringing you updates, and you can follow them at www.freedomflotilla.org. So please let me know what you thought or what you heard today, what you’d like us to cover. Just write to me at [email protected] and I’ll get right back to you. So for the crew here at The Real News, I’m Marc Steiner. Stay involved. Keep listening, and take care.