Back in October 2011 rabble.ca ran an interview I conducted with Karen DeVito, a Canadian activist and participant in that summer's Freedom Waves to Gaza. Freedom Waves is an international effort by activists to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. Since 2010 the activists have launched three flotillas carrying humanitarian aid. The first met with tragedy when Israeli forces stormed the ship called the Mavi Mamara on May 31, 2010, killing nine activists and wounding dozens more. Karen DeVito joined the following year's flotilla, which was scheduled to sail from Greece.

"The boy with the destroyed brain did not need anaesthetic; he could no longer feel anything. The other lay in an artificial coma with intravenous anaesthetic agents to soften the pain and allow the ventilator to work without resistance from the boy's own breathing. A large bandage covered both his eyes. He could not see anyway. He was already blind.