‘Flotilla message was Palestinians not alone’
Sat Nov 3, 2012 7:5PM GMT
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Interview with Dror Feiler, Spokesman, Freedom Flotilla Coalition, from Sweden
I think we put the international solidarity on the map again and we will continue to do so.
A European activist says the message the siege-breaking flotillas were hoping to deliver to the people of Gaza and those in the West Bank was that the Palestine people are not alone.
On May 31, 2010, Israeli forces attacked the Gaza-bound humanitarian Freedom Flotilla in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, killing nine Turkish nationals aboard Turkey’s Mavi Marmara and injuring about 50 other activists who were part of the six-ship convoy.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Dror Feiler, Spokesman of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, from Sweden, to further discuss the issue of siege-breaking ships.
Feiler is joined by two other guests, Hassan Ghani, independent journalist and documentary maker from London, and Greta Berlin, a co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement from Paris.
Press TV: Mr. Feiler, if I could ask you first of all, why did you undertake this trip?
Feiler: You know, this is not the first time. I have been in the Freedom Flotilla 2010; I have been in the Freedom Flotilla 2011. I was on the only boat that succeeded to break the siege -already an offense- and came all the way near to Gaza, the French boat Dignity.
And I was now on the Estelle on our mission to Gaza. I am convinced together with many, many other activists all over the world that the siege of Gaza -the maritime siege of Gaza especially- is abomination, it's illegal, and it should be stopped immediately.
We think it should be lifted permanently and totally; we think it's not constructive in any way, even from the point of view of the Israelis, it's not working.
Press TV: Mr. Feiler what exactly were you intending to deliver? What was on the ship?
Feiler: As they said in the reportage, we had 41 tons of cement, we had 600 footballs, we had some medicine, we had wheelchairs, we had the most important thing of all -solidarity from the people of Europe to the Palestinians and a very important message to the Palestine people in Gaza and in the West Bank that they are not alone, that we will not forget them, we will not turn our eyes from their problems and we will…
Press TV: Israel says that when it boarded the boat, it didn't use force while seizing the ship and gave you guys -the activists- food and water. Is that true?
Feiler: Of course they used force. You know, when you come with about five frigates, two helicopters with snipers on it, with 20 zodiac boats, and you attack a civilian boat in international water with 30 activists between the age of 25 and 80, of course it is violent.
They came with teasers, they came with weapons, they came full-armed, and they took our boat by force. They broke my mission.
Press TV: And how were you subsequently detained? How were you treated in custody?
Feiler: You know, we were treated, I think, the treatment was regular treatment in prison. Of course, prison is a very unpleasant thing. Of course, when you are imprisoned, when you are doing humanitarian mission is even more unpleasant, but I must say they didn't torture us, they didn't beat us, they just deprived us of our freedom and broke our mission to deliver this message and this material to Gaza.
Press TV: I must put to you something that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister said.
He said that you were trying to provoke and slander Israel's name and he said that Israel was just protecting its borders.
Feiler: I think that this is a prospectus statement because I think that the siege in itself is a provocation; I think the wall is a provocation; I think the sentiment is a provocation; I think the segregation upon the policies that Israel is using against the Palestine people, this is the provocation.
What we were doing is trying to send the message of solidarity. What we were trying to do is to tell the people of the world that this is not the question of ethnicity, this is not the question of nationality, this is not the question of religion. We are together with Muslim, Christian, Jews, and atheist on the mission for human rights and international law.
Press TV: And I must also put you very briefly something that Ron Prosor, Israel's UN envoy said. He wrote a letter calling you basically “Weekend Revolutionaries.”He said that you have radical and extremist agendas. He said that the Vikings had a better moral compass than you.
Feiler: You know, if a terrorist or extremist is to defend international law, human rights, Geneva Convention, then OK, then we are extremists, if this is extremism. But I don't think. I think this is the mainstream of international policy and I think that Israeli policies are the extreme one.
But I must also emphasize that the passivity of the world, the passivity of the European Union, and the passivity and the help that Israel is getting from the Western world is part of the problem, is [to] have the possibility to implement this if not for the support they get from…
Press TV: And just to finish very quickly Mr. Feiler, what do you think you achieved from this trip?
Feiler: I think we put back the focus on the Gaza and Palestine problem. I think we put the focus on the fact that people should not be silent when injustice is done even if they live in countries that are far away. I think we put the international solidarity on the map again and we will continue to do so.
MYA/HGH
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