Latest / The Real News Podcast / Gaza Sumud Flotilla Passengers Describe Israel’s Torture, Abuse, & Sexual Violence

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Gaza Sumud Flotilla Passengers Describe Israel’s Torture, Abuse, & Sexual Violence · The Real News Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Real News Network. I'm Maximilian Alvarez.
0:04
Speaker 1: After seventy eight years of occupation and ethnic cleansing in
0:07
Speaker 1: historic Palestine, and after three years of all out genocide
0:11
Speaker 1: in Gaza, Israel's government and military continued to display to
0:15
Speaker 1: the world what it looks like when a settler, colonial,
0:19
Speaker 1: ethno nationalist, and increasingly an openly fascist regime is openly
0:24
Speaker 1: allowed to rule and operate and slaughter and bomb with
0:28
Speaker 1: geopolitical impunity and without any accountability to international law, reason
0:34
Speaker 1: or human morality. This has been on full display from
0:38
Speaker 1: Israel's continued ethnic cleansing of Gaza in the occupied West Bank,
0:42
Speaker 1: regardless of the so called ceasefire that's supposed to be
0:45
Speaker 1: in effect, to Israel's aggression and reckless violence in Iran
0:49
Speaker 1: and Lebanon, to its illegal abductions and torture of peace
0:53
Speaker 1: activists sailing with the Global Samood flotilla to break the
0:56
Speaker 1: siege of Gaza and bring life saving aid to Palestini,
1:00
Speaker 1: and the latest convoy of the humanitarian aid ships was
1:04
Speaker 1: intercepted by Israeli forces in late April and in early May.
1:08
Speaker 1: An activists sailing with the Global Sumood flotilla were captured,
1:11
Speaker 1: imprisoned for days in Israel and eventually deported, But the
1:16
Speaker 1: testimonies and affidavits coming from flotilla members who have been
1:19
Speaker 1: released are frankly horrific. They describe days of targeted torture, abuse,
1:26
Speaker 1: broken bones, unauthorized injections of undisclosed substances, and sexual violence
1:32
Speaker 1: by Israeli soldiers. And these stories, along with the viral
1:36
Speaker 1: videos of Israeli National Security Minister Imar Ben Gevier taunting
1:41
Speaker 1: detained flotilla activists and the videos showing Basque police officers
1:45
Speaker 1: violently beating flotilla activists returning to Spain at Bilbao Airport,
1:50
Speaker 1: have rightly sparked global outrage. And as we always do
1:54
Speaker 1: here at the Real News, we're going to take you
1:56
Speaker 1: to the frontlines of this struggle so that you can
1:58
Speaker 1: hear directly from folks at the center of it. And
2:01
Speaker 1: I am really grateful to be joined today by three guests.
2:04
Speaker 1: Thiago Avila is a member of the Global Summouth Flotilla
2:07
Speaker 1: Steering Committee who was abducted in international waters by the
2:10
Speaker 1: Israelis in late April off the coast of the Greek
2:13
Speaker 1: island of Crete. At the time, Avila was one of
2:16
Speaker 1: two flotilla participants and leaders forcibly transported to Israel, where
2:21
Speaker 1: he was held as a political prisoner for ten days.
2:24
Speaker 1: We are also joined by Katrina Graham, the flotilla activists who,
2:28
Speaker 1: while being detained by Israel shouted Free Palestine in Ben
2:32
Speaker 1: Giver's face and was subsequently shoved down to the floor.
2:35
Speaker 1: And the video that Ben Giverer posted of that exchange
2:38
Speaker 1: has gone globally viral. And we are also joined today
2:42
Speaker 1: by Ariyajni Tells, a Global Summut Flotilla participant who also
2:46
Speaker 1: experienced abuse during this latest round of detentions. Thank you
2:50
Speaker 1: all so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it,
2:54
Speaker 1: and I want to start by just going around the
2:56
Speaker 1: table and giving you all the floor, and I want
2:59
Speaker 1: to ask if you can describe for viewers and listeners
3:02
Speaker 1: what you yourself experienced on this latest mission with the Global
3:06
Speaker 1: Smooth Flotilla, from the time that you set sail to now.
3:11
Speaker 2: So for myself, I was sailing from the Italy port
3:16
Speaker 2: and it was a few smooth days of sailing and
3:20
Speaker 2: then shockingly we were intercepted on the waters just off Crete,
3:24
Speaker 2: which really spoke to us. Usually we have what we
3:26
Speaker 2: call this orange zone, which is just much much closer
3:31
Speaker 2: to Gaza waters. But this time the IOF came all
3:34
Speaker 2: the way into European waters for the interception, which I
3:38
Speaker 2: think speaks to how the Greater Israel project is not
3:41
Speaker 2: only being seen as being taken into Lebanon, but also
3:44
Speaker 2: right across the Mediterranean. We were kidnapped in the open
3:48
Speaker 2: seas illegally, and we were held in detention on a
3:52
Speaker 2: makeshift prison boat for two nights. After being released into Crete,
3:55
Speaker 2: we continued on our mission and we sailed to Marmorous
3:59
Speaker 2: and then set sale towards the shores of Jaza, where
4:02
Speaker 2: once again we were intercepted illegally in international waters. The
4:06
Speaker 2: first time we were about one hundred and forty five
4:08
Speaker 2: participants that were kidnapped and detained, and the second was
4:12
Speaker 2: over four hundred and twenty participants. We were subjected to
4:16
Speaker 2: extreme violence. I think it was very clear there is
4:18
Speaker 2: a marked escalation. This was the third time that I
4:21
Speaker 2: had been kidnapped, also with the twenty twenty five mission
4:24
Speaker 2: with the Global Smooth Flotilla, and each time there's been
4:27
Speaker 2: a marked increase in the aggression, the scale of aggression,
4:31
Speaker 2: the extent. This time, as soon as the iof RIB
4:34
Speaker 2: was approaching the boat I was on, they started firing
4:36
Speaker 2: rubber bullets. Immediately they pulled somebody out and subjected them
4:41
Speaker 2: to violence, to having their hands cable tied, to blindfolding,
4:45
Speaker 2: and from there the violence continued to escalate. Within twenty
4:48
Speaker 2: minutes of being put on the prison boat, one of
4:50
Speaker 2: the others already on the boat was shot with a
4:52
Speaker 2: pellet gun. She did not have adequate treatment until we
4:55
Speaker 2: arrived in Istanbul. And while we were in the port
4:59
Speaker 2: at Ashton in Catsayout prison in the desert, we started
5:03
Speaker 2: to hear more and more accounts of the extent of violence,
5:05
Speaker 2: of people being tasered, people being stabbed, shootings, rape, So
5:09
Speaker 2: this really showed a marked increase and the kinds of violence.
5:13
Speaker 2: But we're very clear that we were there for a
5:15
Speaker 2: few days, whereas there are still more than nine thousand,
5:18
Speaker 2: six hundred Palestinian political prisoners and hostages being subjected to
5:22
Speaker 2: far worse forms of torture in Palestine right now.
5:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, we suffer the same. I have a fist bone
5:32
Speaker 3: at hand, actually my radio bonb in the left rand
5:38
Speaker 3: it's factory, and I have smash nerves. It's just the
5:43
Speaker 3: one of all the fractures that our volunteers have. We
5:49
Speaker 3: have people inject with substance like cats say it. We
5:54
Speaker 3: have testimony of people least in the the soldiers make
6:04
Speaker 3: pleasure noise, noises when they are without clothes. So this
6:12
Speaker 3: experience was very different. And like Kats said, they improved
6:19
Speaker 3: the violence, and they improve the violence because they are
6:24
Speaker 3: still in plenty for all the crimes that they are
6:28
Speaker 3: committed with the Palestinian people and against the Flacidias and.
6:34
Speaker 4: All the things that we passed through is nothing.
6:38
Speaker 3: It's not zerop zero one percent of the Palestinian people
6:44
Speaker 3: facing every day. Actually, now we have kids in the
6:49
Speaker 3: same position that we are days.
6:55
Speaker 4: Days ago.
6:56
Speaker 3: So just when when I was in the prison car
7:03
Speaker 3: that they used to transport us to the prison, to
7:06
Speaker 3: the porch to the prison, I saw draws of smiling.
7:13
Speaker 4: Face, a sad face and a scare phrase.
7:17
Speaker 3: Draws that obsolutely was made for a kid. So everything
7:22
Speaker 3: that you saw in the videos, everything we talk about
7:27
Speaker 3: our experience in this moment.
7:30
Speaker 4: Then I saw the draws.
7:32
Speaker 3: I just feel that all the feelings that I have
7:37
Speaker 3: some kids was passing through these two and we in
7:42
Speaker 3: our position. We know that we have people outside, we
7:47
Speaker 3: have lawyers, we have our governments and our invests uh
7:53
Speaker 3: trying to.
7:56
Speaker 4: Make something.
7:57
Speaker 3: But the Palestinian kids, the Palestinian people, the Palestinian hostage,
8:01
Speaker 3: they are kidnapped by Israel all all these days until
8:05
Speaker 3: today and maybe now actually certainly now they don't have anyone.
8:15
Speaker 3: They don't have they don't know how how long they
8:19
Speaker 3: are being in this prison. And this is I think
8:23
Speaker 3: that the world cannot allow anymore. It's not because we
8:27
Speaker 3: like people Western people. I'm from global self. I know
8:31
Speaker 3: the difference that European passa ports had in our mission too,
8:37
Speaker 3: because they are very racist and they it's still we
8:45
Speaker 3: still have people.
8:46
Speaker 4: Struggle for us in outside.
8:48
Speaker 3: And it's because of this that we we need to
8:52
Speaker 3: be stand with the Palestinian people to and we that
8:54
Speaker 3: we we suffer all of these things. But how my
8:58
Speaker 3: comrade cast you from Brazilian delegations say our morality was intacted.
9:04
Speaker 4: We have breaking bones, we have injuries.
9:08
Speaker 3: We have people that are hated, but our morality and
9:13
Speaker 3: our conscience are very intacted, and actually we are very
9:19
Speaker 3: We're more strong. I came from Amazonia and the struggles
9:24
Speaker 3: are very similar.
9:27
Speaker 4: In my place.
9:28
Speaker 3: My place was occupied with these slogan that we need
9:33
Speaker 3: people and lands that don't have anyone like they they
9:39
Speaker 3: said about Palestine for the creation of these so called states.
9:46
Speaker 3: So it's the same struggle for lands and territory. And
9:51
Speaker 3: we know that we need to continue because the future
9:54
Speaker 3: of Gaza is the future of the entire humanity and
9:57
Speaker 3: be from global self. We know what is colonization, we
10:02
Speaker 3: know what is imperialism when we see and definitely this
10:06
Speaker 3: is the most cruel phase of the colonization in our time.
10:12
Speaker 3: And I think it's our duty, historical jury in this
10:17
Speaker 3: time struggle against this until for this time you'll be
10:21
Speaker 3: free and all the people can be free too.
10:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you A do you think you cad? Thank
10:32
Speaker 5: you Maximilian for bringing this important subject. I was part
10:37
Speaker 5: of the first interception on April twenty ninth, along with
10:41
Speaker 5: one hundred and eighty other people on twenty two boats
10:44
Speaker 5: or over thirty other boats managed to get to Greek
10:48
Speaker 5: territory of Waters and escape these illegal interception seven hundred
10:52
Speaker 5: article miles from Gaza. From there, they were testing the
10:56
Speaker 5: waters and the methods of violations that they ESCA related
11:00
Speaker 5: a lot three weeks later against the second wave of
11:05
Speaker 5: our global Smooth flotilla, we got intercepted and sent to
11:10
Speaker 5: a prison boat. On that prison boat or many people assaulted,
11:14
Speaker 5: very precarious place where people were put so many psychological violence,
11:21
Speaker 5: so many physical violence. After that they transferred the people,
11:27
Speaker 5: transferred one hundred and seventy nine people to Greek boat
11:30
Speaker 5: and then to Greek to Greek territory. But me and
11:35
Speaker 5: Czeifabukshek Spanish Swedish with Palestinian origin, we were taken illegally
11:41
Speaker 5: and kidnapped, taken to occupied Palestine.
11:44
Speaker 6: We were taken to.
11:44
Speaker 5: Ashkeal On prison to an interrogation and torture facility from Shahbac,
11:50
Speaker 5: the Israeli internal intelligence. That was a very troubled moment
11:56
Speaker 5: as well, because the first three days on the transit
11:59
Speaker 5: there we were verely assaulted. That could barely see from
12:01
Speaker 5: my right eye because I was beaten up so hard.
12:05
Speaker 5: I passed out twice while being assaulted by them. They
12:08
Speaker 5: put ropes on my neck and said that now they
12:10
Speaker 5: were allowed legally to hang people. They pretended they would
12:13
Speaker 5: throw me from the boat. They did so many violations.
12:18
Speaker 5: They would put me in stressful positions for a.
12:20
Speaker 6: Long long time.
12:21
Speaker 5: They would close so tight the handcuffs that until today
12:26
Speaker 5: it's been more than a month and I still cannot
12:28
Speaker 5: feel this part of the palm of my hand.
12:30
Speaker 6: I don't know if it's ever.
12:31
Speaker 5: Coming back, because there was obviously some nerve damage. And
12:34
Speaker 5: then after that, in the ten days in interrogation facility,
12:37
Speaker 5: they were saying that they would kill us or would
12:40
Speaker 5: put us for one hundred years imprisonment, and there was
12:43
Speaker 5: torture everywhere. We were in solitary confinement, not the first
12:46
Speaker 5: time in other flotial emissions. I was already put in
12:49
Speaker 5: solitary confinement before, but this time it was more intense,
12:53
Speaker 5: like eighteen hours interrogation, some days, many court hearings where
12:57
Speaker 5: they would always try to extend, extend the stay and
13:00
Speaker 5: would threaten all the time. They would question about every
13:03
Speaker 5: single aspect of life. They would show every day photos
13:07
Speaker 5: of my wife and my baby and asking what the
13:10
Speaker 5: context of the photo was, but it was not like
13:13
Speaker 5: a photo from social media. So just to show that
13:15
Speaker 5: they had the capacity to spy and to do surveillance
13:19
Speaker 5: over our families, they did so many violations. They But
13:23
Speaker 5: the problem is that despite all they did with us,
13:27
Speaker 5: the first group intercepted god severely bitten, more than thirty
13:32
Speaker 5: people have to get hospitalized. But then at the second
13:35
Speaker 5: moment in April in May eighteenth, they put not not
13:40
Speaker 5: thirty people, to put dozens and dozens and dozens of
13:44
Speaker 5: people to get hospitalized, thirty broken bones and a lot
13:50
Speaker 5: of people who under severe violations. And the problem is
13:53
Speaker 5: that despite all this that they did with us, we've
13:56
Speaker 5: seen and we heard, they're doing a lot worse with
13:59
Speaker 5: the Estinias themselves. The interrogation and torture facility that I
14:03
Speaker 5: was for ten days, my neighbors were Palestinians being tortured
14:06
Speaker 5: every day and every night. So the violations that they
14:10
Speaker 5: make us go through, like losing a family member and
14:14
Speaker 5: not being able to say goodbye to them, Palestinians goes
14:17
Speaker 5: through every single day. Like Husamabusafia, who's been more than
14:20
Speaker 5: five hundred days being tortured in Israeli Dungeons also lost
14:24
Speaker 5: his mother like me and could not say goodbye to her.
14:28
Speaker 5: Marwan Bargucci has been arrested for so long also lost
14:31
Speaker 5: family members, could never say goodbye to them. So the
14:34
Speaker 5: problem is that they violate international people because they only
14:42
Speaker 5: don't do the same that they do Palestinians because of
14:44
Speaker 5: the political cost that it has. But they wanted to
14:47
Speaker 5: do the same because they're say this, this is a fascist,
14:50
Speaker 5: supremacist regime and that needs to be defeated. But the
14:53
Speaker 5: reason why they don't do is because they cannot pay
14:56
Speaker 5: the political cost. But they did him a nice Palestinian
14:58
Speaker 5: so much that as things they believe they can't.
15:01
Speaker 6: Pay the political costs.
15:02
Speaker 5: So that's why they've been doing the most horrific things
15:05
Speaker 5: with the almost ten thousand Palestinians, almost four hundred of
15:08
Speaker 5: them children under these Israeli dungeons. And it's for them
15:11
Speaker 5: that we must scream and that we must keep on mobilizing.
15:15
Speaker 1: Well, and I appreciate all three of you so much
15:18
Speaker 1: for sharing that with us. And you know, I know
15:23
Speaker 1: that there's there's so much more to say and so
15:27
Speaker 1: much more that you and other you know, members of
15:29
Speaker 1: the flotilla have said. And I would just encourage folks
15:31
Speaker 1: out there, you know this this is not you know,
15:35
Speaker 1: private information, Like if you want to learn what you
15:39
Speaker 1: know these folks went through at the hands of Israel,
15:41
Speaker 1: with the support of our government here in the United States,
15:44
Speaker 1: you can go listen to more of their testimonies. You
15:47
Speaker 1: can read these affidavits. It is horrific, and I rather
15:52
Speaker 1: than just kind of going deeper into the the those
15:55
Speaker 1: horrific details, I want to use the remaining time that
15:59
Speaker 1: we have just to take a step back here, right
16:02
Speaker 1: because you know, we've been covering these flotilla missions and
16:06
Speaker 1: speaking to participants for years, you know, from union organizers
16:10
Speaker 1: like Chris Small's to military veterans from the United States,
16:14
Speaker 1: you know, part of different piece groups, all manner of
16:17
Speaker 1: folks who have joined these important flotilla missions, and our
16:20
Speaker 1: viewers and listeners, you know, have told us how much
16:23
Speaker 1: these missions mean to them, but they've also asked us
16:27
Speaker 1: questions about, you know, what the ultimate mission is, what
16:30
Speaker 1: the what the ultimate goals are, and what has and
16:34
Speaker 1: hasn't been achieved over the course of the past, you know,
16:37
Speaker 1: nearly twenty years from the first you know missions in
16:40
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight to the Gosam Freedom Flotilla in
16:44
Speaker 1: twenty ten, which included six ships that were raided by
16:47
Speaker 1: Israeli forces and ten participants killed, to this latest voyage,
16:52
Speaker 1: and and all the other voyages that you know were
16:55
Speaker 1: intercepted or raided or captured by Israel. So I want
16:58
Speaker 1: to go back around the table and ask you three
17:01
Speaker 1: to respond to that and give folks your perspective on
17:06
Speaker 1: this year's long mission and movement and what is being achieved,
17:13
Speaker 1: even if it feels like a defeat every time, you know,
17:17
Speaker 1: Israel and the IDF prevent one of these voyages from
17:20
Speaker 1: reaching the shores of Gaza.
17:23
Speaker 2: So, of course, our ultimate goal is to support the
17:26
Speaker 2: Palatinian people in their leadership and their struggle for liberation.
17:30
Speaker 2: Specifically with the Flotele emissions, it is to open humanitarian
17:34
Speaker 2: car door to Kaza, to break Israel's illegal siege on
17:38
Speaker 2: Kaza that has been held for nearly twenty years. We
17:40
Speaker 2: know that Kaza should not be dependent on aid. What
17:43
Speaker 2: we bring on our boats is a token amount of aid,
17:46
Speaker 2: trying to bring some support that we can to those
17:50
Speaker 2: in Kaza. But ultimately we need to make sure that
17:53
Speaker 2: the siege is ended and that the people of Kaza
17:55
Speaker 2: are able to have self agency, be able to live
17:59
Speaker 2: for themselves, for themselves no longer to be dependent on aid.
18:03
Speaker 2: While we are working to break the siege, there is
18:05
Speaker 2: so much else that we are working to do. So
18:08
Speaker 2: we know that at the moment, since the so called
18:11
Speaker 2: ceasefire agreement was brought in. Eyes are no longer on Kaza.
18:15
Speaker 2: On the daily realities being experienced not only in Kaza,
18:18
Speaker 2: but also in the West Bank. We know, for example,
18:21
Speaker 2: on the first day of eight there were ten Palestinian
18:23
Speaker 2: people murdered, including five children. We know that the violence continues,
18:28
Speaker 2: the bombing continues, the lack of access to food and
18:31
Speaker 2: resources and medical care continues. So we need to do
18:35
Speaker 2: whatever we can to raise our voices to draw attention
18:38
Speaker 2: back to Kaza, to the struggle for Palestinian liberation. We've
18:42
Speaker 2: seen as a result of this flotilla that there has
18:44
Speaker 2: been widespread condemnation. So we know that Bengavier posted this
18:48
Speaker 2: video and it received widespread condemnation from many global leaders.
18:52
Speaker 2: But this is the kind of action he has been
18:54
Speaker 2: taking for years, posting videos attempting to humiliate Palestinian prisoners
18:59
Speaker 2: speaking about his tension to execute them under the new
19:02
Speaker 2: legislation that is coming through, and this doesn't receive the
19:05
Speaker 2: same kind of condemnation. Even when Nennia who spoke out
19:08
Speaker 2: and said that he wasn't representing the values of Israel
19:11
Speaker 2: by posting this video, it's very clear that was more
19:14
Speaker 2: about the tone and that he shared the video rather
19:17
Speaker 2: than the extent of violence that was perpetrated against us
19:20
Speaker 2: and the flotilla, but also showing the real values of Israel,
19:24
Speaker 2: the continued abuses that are well documented being committed against
19:28
Speaker 2: Palestinian people for many, many decades, which is why we
19:31
Speaker 2: need to move beyond words of condemnations from our government
19:34
Speaker 2: leaders into real actions, into sanctions, into divestment, making sure
19:38
Speaker 2: that Israel is isolated on the international stage and finally
19:41
Speaker 2: they're forced to follow international law.
19:45
Speaker 3: Maybe he cannot until now break the physical siege, the
19:50
Speaker 3: physical illegal siege. Actually one of our votes or part
19:57
Speaker 3: of our votes reached the shore of Gaza in these
20:02
Speaker 3: days with penal solars and some food and material for
20:08
Speaker 3: the people that they are very have to receive just
20:12
Speaker 3: because it's important because they research are so low and
20:21
Speaker 3: the minimal things that we arrive Gaza.
20:25
Speaker 4: It's a good thing.
20:27
Speaker 3: But actually what's rich Gaza with this part of our
20:34
Speaker 3: boats was hope the people.
20:36
Speaker 4: The Parisina always says this.
20:38
Speaker 3: They feel they are not alone and the world are
20:41
Speaker 3: talking about and they have people fight for them. Like
20:46
Speaker 3: I said before, when we are in the prison, we
20:49
Speaker 3: know they have people outside outside of the prisons fight
20:55
Speaker 3: for us and this is about humanity stly direct to
21:00
Speaker 3: We cannot break the physical legal SiGe now, but we
21:05
Speaker 3: break a lot of other seeds.
21:08
Speaker 4: Now. I am Amazonian, Amazonian.
21:10
Speaker 3: Person talk to you right now because of this movement
21:15
Speaker 3: and we are talking about Palestine and we are talking
21:18
Speaker 3: about the liberation of the people for all the people
21:22
Speaker 3: can hear and join us to what what the flotillas
21:26
Speaker 3: are for me. It's an instrument of struggle for liberation
21:31
Speaker 3: for the Palestinians and the entitled wood.
21:34
Speaker 4: We are.
21:36
Speaker 3: Opera, a global operaze in this moment, it's happening and
21:41
Speaker 3: this was built since the first flotilla. The the create
21:49
Speaker 3: these this well just not accept the ish I commit
21:55
Speaker 3: crimes and if the governments are compliced, uh, we are
22:01
Speaker 3: not and were just saying because the governments are doing
22:04
Speaker 3: nothing like in the all the history of the humanity,
22:07
Speaker 3: we see like this all our rights we need to
22:11
Speaker 3: fight for them. And in our training we studied about
22:16
Speaker 3: the the legacies of the non violence techniques, like in India,
22:21
Speaker 3: in the independence of the India, we have ganji uh
22:26
Speaker 3: make marsh and struggle against.
22:29
Speaker 4: Them the more.
22:32
Speaker 3: And arm in the in the time the budshoed arm
22:36
Speaker 3: and they just walk. But this cause mobilization, this causes
22:41
Speaker 3: strip discouse.
22:43
Speaker 4: And this what what we need.
22:45
Speaker 3: We need not just platillas, We need all the people
22:49
Speaker 3: trying to uh do something because like we always say,
22:54
Speaker 3: this is our historical duty. So I think in the
22:58
Speaker 3: history of the platillas, we just create more and more
23:03
Speaker 3: united we we create, we create solidarity. We can see
23:10
Speaker 3: each other like human beings and people that need to
23:16
Speaker 3: free themselves, like people, people for the people.
23:20
Speaker 4: You know.
23:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this it's very connected with all the
23:27
Speaker 3: struggles in the entire world. And it's just an instrument,
23:31
Speaker 3: but it's makes some noise and not just break the
23:36
Speaker 3: physical stage, but all the other sass And for me,
23:41
Speaker 3: we have a lot of seas like like Catch says,
23:44
Speaker 3: in the next flutilla, we have the season fire, but we.
23:49
Speaker 4: Still was a victory.
23:51
Speaker 3: And in this time we already have uh you went
23:56
Speaker 3: pronunciate against Hiel and.
23:59
Speaker 4: And this now it's proved they are they.
24:03
Speaker 3: Use SIGs of violence against the Palestinian And we don't
24:08
Speaker 3: know if it was the Flotida that make these more
24:13
Speaker 3: in the media right now, but I think it's a
24:18
Speaker 3: movement a global movement and you just need to increase
24:22
Speaker 3: the solidarity how much we can.
24:28
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm very satisfied with the the answers of my commerce.
24:34
Speaker 6: I'd just like to add that whenever we.
24:36
Speaker 5: Are mobilizing solidarity of people, we need to be at
24:40
Speaker 5: the service of these people. And the Palestinian people have
24:42
Speaker 5: been very clear on their callings for solidarity. They need
24:46
Speaker 5: people to stand side by side with them and their
24:49
Speaker 5: struggle for liberation. They need to stop the genocide. They
24:54
Speaker 5: need to break the siege, this illegal siege of nineteen
24:57
Speaker 5: years by sea, by landed by air of Agaza, and
25:00
Speaker 5: they need the internationalist of the world, the free people
25:03
Speaker 5: of the world, to break their country's complicity with the genocide.
25:06
Speaker 5: So this has been very clear calling that the Palestinian
25:10
Speaker 5: people made and that have been our line of action
25:15
Speaker 5: since day one, since the very first people that start
25:18
Speaker 5: mobilizing eighteen years ago to break this siege by sea
25:21
Speaker 5: missions by using boats. It has always been the goal
25:25
Speaker 5: to break this illegal siege, to create this humanitarian corrid
25:28
Speaker 5: but most about to being solidarity Palestinians in their struggle
25:31
Speaker 5: for liberation. The tactic is one with many like all
25:36
Speaker 5: my comrats said before the boats are not more important
25:40
Speaker 5: than the massive demonstrations in the streets, not more important
25:43
Speaker 5: than the boycott campaigns, not more important than the people
25:46
Speaker 5: disrupting the arm factories and facing huge criminalization, than the
25:49
Speaker 5: people spreading real news like you do here on this media,
25:55
Speaker 5: like people sharing knowledge, historical knowledge, like people doing the
25:58
Speaker 5: grassroots work, banging door to door, talking to people. So
26:02
Speaker 5: all of this is part of the same struggle to
26:05
Speaker 5: defeat Zionism, these racist and supremacist ideology, to defeat their
26:10
Speaker 5: alliance with United States imperialism that uses the Israeli regime
26:14
Speaker 5: as a mean to produce and to maintain his gemony
26:18
Speaker 5: over that region, over the world. So it's important for
26:21
Speaker 5: us to be there doing all the actions that we
26:24
Speaker 5: can with the people that go on flotillas. They don't
26:27
Speaker 5: do just that. They do all the other actions of
26:30
Speaker 5: solidarity actions with Palestine, and they're not mobilized only for Palestine.
26:33
Speaker 6: We do flotillas to Cuba as well.
26:35
Speaker 5: We'll be doing mobilizations for all the oppressed people in
26:39
Speaker 5: the world. So we believe in a better society, free
26:41
Speaker 5: of exploitation, free of oppression, free of the destruction of nature.
26:45
Speaker 5: The flotillas are a mean to bring more people together
26:49
Speaker 5: to push for Palestine and solidarity and hopefully to achieve
26:54
Speaker 5: concrete victories. Like Ariadne said, the last mission in October
26:58
Speaker 5: twenty twenty five as a key factor to convince Trump
27:02
Speaker 5: that they would never succeed in implementing the complete ethnic
27:07
Speaker 5: lensing of Palestine. So Trump came from a person that
27:10
Speaker 5: four months before October was saying that they would displace
27:13
Speaker 5: Palestinians to Editoril South Sudan, to Congo, to Somali land,
27:18
Speaker 5: to a person saying, no, we need a piece.
27:21
Speaker 6: Israel cannot fight the whole world by himself.
27:23
Speaker 5: So that was the mobilization of the people, the public,
27:27
Speaker 5: and the global uprising that promoted that.
27:30
Speaker 6: So we need to do this again.
27:32
Speaker 5: When we decided that we would sail again, it's not
27:34
Speaker 5: that the conditions were easier. There's almost eight months of
27:37
Speaker 5: the so called ceasfire. People are still getting killed, They're
27:40
Speaker 5: still being restricted. Land is being stolen with the so
27:43
Speaker 5: called Yellow line, and their plans are the worst by
27:47
Speaker 5: the land being ruled by war criminals like Trump and Yaho,
27:50
Speaker 5: by the Big Text with techno or returning regimes, or
27:53
Speaker 5: by the industrial military complex that profits from war.
27:56
Speaker 6: We don't want any of that, and.
27:58
Speaker 5: We decided that we would sail because the Palascian people
28:01
Speaker 5: are saying, please expose that there's no reals, file prelease,
28:04
Speaker 5: expose that the genocide is ongoing.
28:06
Speaker 6: And we decided that we would do that.
28:08
Speaker 5: Despite the hard conditions, despite the increasing and escalating use
28:11
Speaker 5: of force and violence against our flotilla, and we did
28:14
Speaker 5: our best with the resources that we had. We're very
28:17
Speaker 5: proud of what we did, but it is an incomplete
28:19
Speaker 5: task because the genocide is still going on, and we
28:22
Speaker 5: still need to defeat Zionism and imperialism, which is the
28:25
Speaker 5: key task, the historical task.
28:26
Speaker 6: Of this generation.
28:29
Speaker 1: Well, I think that was really powerfully put by all
28:32
Speaker 1: of you, and I know I've got to let you go,
28:34
Speaker 1: and I wanted to just sneak in one final question here,
28:38
Speaker 1: a sort of rapid fire around the table, final message
28:41
Speaker 1: that you want to share with folks watching and listening,
28:45
Speaker 1: because you know, like obviously, the common feeling for you know,
28:50
Speaker 1: people with you know, a beating heart these days is
28:54
Speaker 1: everything is getting worse and there's nothing I can do
28:56
Speaker 1: about it. Right, The bastards are winning. The genus side
29:00
Speaker 1: is continuing, you know, the wars are are proliferating, you know,
29:04
Speaker 1: the fascists are rising. There's a lot to be despondent
29:09
Speaker 1: about right now. But I know from what our viewers
29:14
Speaker 1: and listeners have told me that they see so much
29:16
Speaker 1: hope in the global samood flotilla, in the you know,
29:20
Speaker 1: like you know, Palestine solidarity movement around the world, even
29:26
Speaker 1: in spite of you know, things objectively getting worse in
29:30
Speaker 1: the world. And so I wanted to sort of bring
29:34
Speaker 1: things back down to like the ground level and ask
29:38
Speaker 1: you all if you had any messages to folks out
29:40
Speaker 1: there who are feeling despondent, hopeless and they feel like
29:46
Speaker 1: they don't have the strength to fight back right now,
29:50
Speaker 1: I want to hear. I want them to hear from
29:52
Speaker 1: y'all about how you find the strength, Katrina to stare
29:56
Speaker 1: at mar Ben Gavir in the face and shout free Palaceine.
30:00
Speaker 1: I want to hear where you find the strength, Thiago
30:04
Speaker 1: and Ideogny like to be you know, beaten and tortured
30:08
Speaker 1: in these you know, prisons, and to still stand up
30:12
Speaker 1: and speak out for what's right. So I wanted to
30:15
Speaker 1: just have that be our concluding question. Any final messages
30:18
Speaker 1: you want to share with folks out there about how
30:20
Speaker 1: to find that strength and how to keep going even
30:23
Speaker 1: when all seems dark and hopeless.
30:28
Speaker 2: Thank you for this really important question. I think we
30:31
Speaker 2: need to be clear that this is the moment to
30:34
Speaker 2: claim our collective power. There are imperialist forces trying to
30:39
Speaker 2: silence us, and we need to absolutely refuse this. We
30:42
Speaker 2: need to continue resisting and we need to make sure
30:44
Speaker 2: that across the world we rise together. There is so
30:47
Speaker 2: much power in collective action, and there is so much
30:50
Speaker 2: power in our communities. Love we know will win out overall.
30:55
Speaker 2: So when we lean into these kinds of actions, when
30:57
Speaker 2: we come into community with each other, claim our power,
31:01
Speaker 2: whether it's through going to demonstrations, participating in direct action,
31:04
Speaker 2: speaking to political leadership, driving and pushing for change. Wherever
31:09
Speaker 2: we can we can have an impact. We have had
31:12
Speaker 2: an impact, and we will continue to do this until
31:14
Speaker 2: Palestine is free.
31:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I want to tell about something that
31:24
Speaker 3: happened with me in the ambigration process. When we are beaten,
31:29
Speaker 3: when we are arrived in as Dot and they ask
31:34
Speaker 3: us if we try to enter in Ishail illegally and
31:40
Speaker 3: break the attempted attempted to the seed to Gaza and
31:45
Speaker 3: I interrupt the soldier and I say, first of all,
31:50
Speaker 3: it's not Israel, it's occupied Palestine.
31:53
Speaker 4: And they what And I say, oh, bie Palistine and
31:56
Speaker 4: say what now, I say, op bie Palestine. And then
32:01
Speaker 4: a woman that was in the side, she asked me.
32:06
Speaker 3: First of all, they asked me where I'm from, and
32:08
Speaker 3: I just point to my past part and they say.
32:11
Speaker 4: Ah, Brazil to the bank or regado they.
32:13
Speaker 3: Say in Portuguese something like that, and that these women says, Brazil,
32:19
Speaker 3: did you know that Brazils are of patients and you
32:21
Speaker 3: are a colonizer And I say no, I am from
32:26
Speaker 3: Amazonia and I'm alive, a proof that the original people
32:31
Speaker 3: always win. And you know that you are in the
32:35
Speaker 3: wrong side of the history. And what I talked to
32:39
Speaker 3: the people just to continue the story.
32:42
Speaker 4: They the other.
32:45
Speaker 3: Says Amazon and make who annoys that imitator are indigenous
32:51
Speaker 3: people and I call I call them racist and they
32:54
Speaker 3: are the guardens taking to the other step. But I
32:59
Speaker 3: can say, I can say this face these things in
33:03
Speaker 3: his face. And something that I always say is when
33:06
Speaker 3: I have already sent my side.
33:09
Speaker 4: Uh, there are.
33:11
Speaker 3: Questions, because it's not an easy to ask. We question
33:15
Speaker 3: all the time we abdicate our families, we abdicate our times.
33:21
Speaker 3: But we did this because we are on the right
33:26
Speaker 3: side of the history. And when you fight the right
33:30
Speaker 3: side of the history, you are already win in it.
33:34
Speaker 3: And when we win, we win two times. So every
33:38
Speaker 3: time that we just organize ourselves, we are all we are.
33:44
Speaker 3: We we are ready work for ourselves, not for other persons.
33:53
Speaker 3: It's a work that go back to us one hundred percent.
33:58
Speaker 4: And this is very pleasure, this is joy.
34:04
Speaker 3: Stay in community and fight for the liberation, fight for
34:08
Speaker 3: the future, fight for the present, fight for the person
34:14
Speaker 3: on your side. But it's fights for you to you
34:17
Speaker 3: know and make.
34:18
Speaker 4: Your life more meaning.
34:21
Speaker 3: And we can recognize ourselves and stay a little bit
34:27
Speaker 3: off of this systems that exploit us twenty four hours
34:33
Speaker 3: that we need to work a lot to survive to
34:36
Speaker 3: see that our a person in on our side is
34:40
Speaker 3: a competitor and not a comrade and not a brother
34:45
Speaker 3: a sister.
34:46
Speaker 4: So you when you are organizing.
34:51
Speaker 3: An struggle for in solidarity with the people of a
34:55
Speaker 3: child world, you are in a community and you are
35:00
Speaker 3: you are like you acting like a human being, a
35:03
Speaker 3: collective person that we are. We are a collective person.
35:08
Speaker 3: And this give us not just help about purpose in
35:13
Speaker 3: our lives. So I just want to say that come
35:18
Speaker 3: to join us, because it's amazing.
35:21
Speaker 4: And this what they did it with us is.
35:27
Speaker 3: It's not I don't know, it's not compassed like all
35:31
Speaker 3: the they trained all the power that we feel when
35:36
Speaker 3: we are in a collective and the power of the
35:40
Speaker 3: people and the power of the eililarity can.
35:42
Speaker 4: Change the world. And this is beautiful and this is amazing.
35:48
Speaker 3: I just, I just I want to say, come to
35:53
Speaker 3: join us. It's not necessary that you went in a boat,
35:57
Speaker 3: but you can support it in.
35:58
Speaker 4: That many many many ways.
36:00
Speaker 3: But just being collective in community because the lists can
36:04
Speaker 3: change the world.
36:09
Speaker 5: Thank you ali Ad, and thank you Cat for bringing
36:12
Speaker 5: this up as well. I understand that situation is really
36:17
Speaker 5: not easy. Whenever we are analyzing the international conjuncture, we
36:21
Speaker 5: need to be very concrete in our analysis. And the
36:25
Speaker 5: truth is that our enemies are getting bolder, and sometimes
36:28
Speaker 5: they are getting stronger. They are more willing to cause harm,
36:32
Speaker 5: they are more willing to commit genocide. They see total
36:35
Speaker 5: impunity over almost three years of this escalation of genocide
36:38
Speaker 5: of Ergasa, that they feel empowered to attack Lebanon to
36:41
Speaker 5: attack Syria, to attack it up, to attack em and
36:43
Speaker 5: to attack it on, to attack ven as well and
36:45
Speaker 5: kidnap the president, to create a naval blockade in Qube,
36:48
Speaker 5: but to threaten Mexico, Colombia, Brazil to intervene in elections.
36:53
Speaker 6: So we are going through a very hard.
36:56
Speaker 5: Moment of world politics and international relations. But on the
37:01
Speaker 5: other hand, thanks to the gift that the Palestinian people
37:04
Speaker 5: gave to humanity, people woke up. Billions of people understood
37:10
Speaker 5: what imperial is amiss by the lenses of the communicators
37:13
Speaker 5: from Gaza who gave their lives to live stream a
37:16
Speaker 5: genocide and to counter the lives of the mainstream media
37:19
Speaker 5: that was saying that that was not happening, there was
37:22
Speaker 5: no starvation, that these homes were actually tunnels below, that
37:26
Speaker 5: these hospitals actually had weapons hidden there. Gave their lives
37:31
Speaker 5: to show that that was false, that was simply wrong.
37:35
Speaker 5: That was a genocide regime, bombing hospitals, school shelters, residential
37:39
Speaker 5: areas all the name of a racist and supremacist ideology
37:43
Speaker 5: called Zionism, which was not actually new, that was part
37:47
Speaker 5: of eight decades of genocide and ethnic lensing that structured
37:50
Speaker 5: itself into an apartheid colonial state. So this factor changed
37:55
Speaker 5: things because people, once they became aware, they started mobilizing
37:59
Speaker 5: as well, so that for the first time we saw
38:02
Speaker 5: a general strike based on an international topic.
38:06
Speaker 6: In Italy, for example.
38:07
Speaker 5: We've seen the history of revolutions, many general strikes in
38:10
Speaker 5: many countries, but never for an international topic like this,
38:13
Speaker 5: like the Italians went to the streets for Palestine. We've
38:16
Speaker 5: seen millions and millions of people in so many countries
38:20
Speaker 5: breaking the narrative of the governments, deteriorating their image with
38:25
Speaker 5: their complicity, challenging the mainstream media point of view, and
38:29
Speaker 5: winning in public opinion when they challenge that. So that
38:32
Speaker 5: is something that shows the power. It's not like this
38:35
Speaker 5: battle is wont Actually we have a long way ahead,
38:37
Speaker 5: there's a long march to freedom.
38:39
Speaker 6: But we see the means.
38:41
Speaker 5: We see the popular mobilization can defeat even the most
38:45
Speaker 5: powerful empire of our generation, can defeat Donald Trump, can
38:49
Speaker 5: defeat Benjamina Tanya. Then can corner them so much that
38:53
Speaker 5: they need to change the strategy that they need to
38:55
Speaker 5: find other ways. So we need to do this all
38:59
Speaker 5: of our lives, all the time, every time, more aligned,
39:02
Speaker 5: more together, every time, more courageous, more bold, because this
39:07
Speaker 5: is the mission that we have. So it's not that
39:09
Speaker 5: it's easy, but we see that it work. And the
39:13
Speaker 5: people together, they have more powerful than any army. All
39:16
Speaker 5: they have is their violence, their hate, their bombs and
39:18
Speaker 5: their weapons.
39:19
Speaker 6: We have all the rest.
39:20
Speaker 5: We have solidarity, we have love, We have the history
39:22
Speaker 5: of any colonial struggle that shows when people are decided
39:25
Speaker 5: to take this long march of freedom, they are unstoppable.
39:28
Speaker 5: And we have the idea that all people deserve to
39:32
Speaker 5: be free and equal, deserve to have the right to
39:34
Speaker 5: live in peace, but not as abstract peace, but a
39:38
Speaker 5: piece with justice, a piece where people can live despite
39:42
Speaker 5: their religion, despite their ethnicity, despite their race, despite their gender,
39:46
Speaker 5: people can live with all the rights guarantee.
39:49
Speaker 6: And that's what we are aiming for.
39:50
Speaker 5: That's what we keep mobilizing, and that's why we know
39:53
Speaker 5: that despite being very hard way, we see that we
39:56
Speaker 5: are advancing our enemies. Advancing one way, we advance in another.
40:00
Speaker 5: If we organize better, if we mobilize more and more,
40:02
Speaker 5: we will be victorious.