Istanbul. 27 April, Saturday.
Ninth day in Istanbul. The Freedom Flotilla is hit another hard blow. The flag and documentation of Guinea-Bissau have been taken from the Akdeniz, so it has no permit to embark. For the time being, the initiative has been suspended and all entrepreneurs will come home.
A few days ago we learned that an inspector from Guinea-Bissau was going to be sent to investigate the boat because of pressure from the US and other countries. The inspector says, contrary to what we expected, that the ship is good enough to leave, although the investigation continues. However, the flag has been taken away from him in order to ban departure.
The Freedom Flotilla has been abandoned for the moment and we will return home all entrepreneurs
It has become clear that, if this was not enough, it is a political issue to hinder the fleet and not a technical one, as they wanted to argue. The pressures of EE.UU, Israel and the European Union, especially by Germany and the United Kingdom, have been impressive. And the last step has been to remove the flag from the boat. Guinea-Bissau has a great economic dependence on United States aid and has finally had to comply with its pressure.
We did not believe that we would have received as much pressure against a small fleet as ours, but that has been the case. The Israeli Army said that we were going to address it and make many excuses one after the other. It is clear that our project has hurt them. In American universities they have also given us great support, and they have also had to hear that they are anti-Semites, the slogan of always. There are many governments that are supporting Israel, either directly or by silence, and do not want civil society to move.
We cannot yet say when and how we will, but we will
Today we have mobilised in Istanbul. The protests had many goals. To denounce Israel’s pressure to prevent the exit of the Freedom Fleet, to denounce the genocide against the Palestinian people, to assert the right to freedom of Palestine and to make it clear that we have taken the decision to send a fleet that will break the blockade of Gaza. In a rally a press conference was given by the coalition organizing team and an unnotified demonstration was held.
We are frustrated to come back, of course, but we are also happy because we have made society think about Palestine. At the moment the fleet will not be able to start, but it will come out. The blockade against Gaza must be broken, the struggle for humanity is ours, the Palestinian struggle. We cannot yet say when and how we will, but we will.
Pili Revilla, Agus Gorbea and Mikel Zuloaga 'Mikelon'