First-hand from the Freedom Flotilla: Sid Khan on Responsibility and Witnessing

In late August 2025, 500 ships set sail from Western Europe in what would become the largest civilian-led convoy of its kind in modern history. The Global Sumud Flotilla, with people from over 44 countries and from 47 nationalities, sailed 2,000 miles over six weeks and ended their aid mission just 40 miles shy of the Gazan coastline. Sid Khan was one of four Scottish nationals detained by Israeli forces in international waters from the Flotilla, and has been touring Scottish universities in an effort to inspire and educate students. 

“I was working for a bank most of my life,” Khan explained. “I was a global head of financial crime — basically, I was responsible for keeping the board of directors out of jail. That was my job. Khan stuck with that job for many years before he realised the implications. “The banking sector sits at the epicentre of everything that’s wrong with a capitalist society. The only thing that matters is the bottom line. I was getting paid a lot of money to keep that machine going. But eventually, I just couldn’t justify it anymore.”

It took a decade, he said, to shake off the “golden handcuffs.” When he ultimately resigned last year, he and his wife left Glasgow to focus on their charity full-time.  It works to provide free eye care in northern Pakistan. Even in the mountains, the news from Gaza was inescapable. “The reality is you can’t watch what’s happening and not act. I walked away from the corporate world last year. Since then, I’ve just been doing what feels right — using whatever privilege I have to do something that matters. The Flotilla was part of that.”

The voyage was “beautiful and horrific.”  Khan described a genuine sense of humanity — people from every background and faith, all united by one purpose — to get aid to Gaza, to break the siege. “And then, within hours, we were being boarded, guns pointed at our heads, treated like criminals. For what? For carrying medicine and food,” he recalled. “You realise how fragile everything is — the law, human rights, international order. You realise who those systems protect, and who they don’t.” Khan spoke with the precision of someone used to institutions and with the exhaustion of someone who has outgrown them. “The banks, the media, the governments — they all enable this machine that dehumanises people,” he said. “And unless you stand outside of it, you can’t even see it.”

 “The BBC is entirely complicit in the genocide,” he said. “They know the narrative they’re pushing is not reality. But they push it anyway. They are shaping public opinion. They are lying. Straight up lying.”

When I asked about the BBC’s refusal to use the term “genocide,” he replied, “Anyone who refuses to tell the truth has blood on their hands.” “It’s as simple as that. It is a genocide,” he said again. “It’s not complicated. Apartheid, illegal occupation, oppression — they all apply. Genocide absolutely represents what’s happening in Palestine today.”

Khan’s political convictions are grounded in experience, but his transformation began long before Gaza. “It was just after midnight,” he recalled of a call he received while still working in banking. After Khan liked a social media post by Save The Children, his company called “[saying] they were ‘checking in’. What they were really saying was, ‘We’re watching you.’ That’s when I knew I couldn’t live that life anymore,”he explained

“Social justice isn’t a six-month project,” he said. “You either subscribe to a way of life, or you don’t. And when you do, it comes with compromise. It cost me my career. That’s the price of commitment.” If his career was the cost, students are now the audience. “Students have always been at the forefront of civil liberties,” he said. “You’ve not yet been bogged down by the realities of everyday life — the mortgage, the bills, the nine-to-five. You have the freedom to call a spade a spade.” Khan sees power in that freedom. “When our boats were bombed in the Mediterranean, Italy — despite being a right-wing, Zionist-friendly government — had to send two naval frigates to protect us. Why? Because there were riots in their streets. That’s the power of people. That’s when I realised everything can be done. Time travel maybe not,” he grinned,  “but everything else — absolutely.”

For Khan, people power is not symbolic — it is tactical, and a technology of war that lies in our hands. “When enough of us stand up, they can’t ignore us,” he said. “That’s what governments fear more than anything — ordinary people refusing to stay silent.”

Still, he admitted the fight takes its toll. “Israel is hollowing itself out,” he said, “When a majority of the population believes not enough damage has been done to Gaza, that’s a society corroding from within. It’s becoming more extreme, more isolated. And in the long term, it’s not sustainable.” 

“Nobody can go through what they’re going through and not be impacted,” Khan said.  “But children are resilient. You see them laughing, playing games in the rubble. That’s hope. That’s humanity refusing to die.”

Even as he spoke of devastation, he returned to responsibility. “If you want to change something, don’t wait for someone else to do it,” he said.. “The responsibility sits with you. And if someone tells you it can’t be done — don’t buy it. Everything can be done.”

He glanced toward the door, where students spilt into the cold and drenching St Andrews night. “You’re the ones who will inherit this world,” he said. “The question is, will you inherit it as bystanders or as changemakers? Because one way or another, history will remember you.”

A plethora of societies rallied to create the opportunity to host Khan. Laura Márquez, a lead organiser of Students for Justice for Palestine, explained that it was an honour to have him speak at our university. “We all thought that it was really, really encouraging to have him here in St Andrews. So many students feel discouraged, and to hear such impactful, purposeful words from first-hand experience of Israeli soldiers and the Flotilla [...] this was one of my favourite events we’ve done over the past two years.”

The Freedom Flotilla’s next departure is set for April 2026, and will continue to set sail until “Palestine is free. From the River to the Sea.”

Illustration by Lyla Ritzler