was born in a refugee camp in Palestine
where the majority of the Palestinians
are refugees displaced within and
outside of Palestine. More than 70% of
the population in Gaza are refugees. The
base of the Zion state is to ethnic
cleanse the Palestinian people, to claim
that this is a land without people, to
take the resources and take the whole
country and expand as much as they can.
Since the genocide started 22 months, we
have been witnessing crimes after
crimes.
They have been imposing siege, illegal
Israeli siege on Gaza for the past um 18
years. Since 2007
without um any reason they have decided
that this part of the land will be
blocked, no access.
The first actions that they took since
two 22 months was to block water,
medicine and electricity and food on
Gaza. The starvation that we are seeing
in Gaza is intentional. It's man-made.
We talk about the humanitarian aspect.
This is a nonviolent mission that is
aiming to open a corridor of
humanitarian aid, but for a political
reason that is happening in Palestine.
What is happening there is not a natural
disaster. We cannot ignore the fact that
Palestinians are being starved to death
because there is a government that is
intentionally starving those people to
death. Because there is a government
that is intentionally pumping
Palestinian kids and families every day
for the purpose of killing as many
Palestinians as possible. When you bomb
hospitals, when you pump schools, when
you pump um educational centers, your
main aim is basically to um displace the
people to commit crimes against the
civil society and to end the presence of
the Palestinian population. That's why
we mobilize. That's why we work
together. This mission has started last
June, but it's all inspired by the
Palestinian people. The whole movement
is inspired by the Palestinian
resistance. Our main focus is what on
what's happening in Palestine.
Historically, Palestinians have been
leading nonviolent and disobedience
mobilizations for so many years. We are
talking about 19 36 with the big Arab
strike for three years. We are talking
about the civil disobedience in Bethl
Christian city in the West Bank. We are
talking about the first antifa long
seven years of Palestinian nonviolent
resistance and disobedience. We are not
here to save Palestinians. Neither teach
them about nonviolence or telling them
what type of resistance they have
choose. Any people who live under
occupation, they have the right to
choose how they want to resist that
occupation. We as a movement
We as a movement take a strategic
decision to choose the way that we
mobilize, the way that we work and the
way that we support the resistance and
join solidarity. This is not a C mission
for us. It is putting the basis for a
global solidarity movement that will
stand against oppression wherever it is.
We bring global south to global north.
We work together step by step because
they are united in their oppression.
They are united in their crimes and we
are united in our solidarity. That's why
we have been working together. That's
what my colleagues will continue
explaining about the mission. Thank you
all for coming here and thank you
Barcelona.
Thank thank you Barcelona. When we when
we discussed about the launch the launch
of this mission I said it has to be
Barcelona. Barcelona is the reference of
Palestine solidarity for so many years.
the reference of Palestine support
during the genocide. And we have been
tagged, our ports have been tagged with
complicity because of the ships that
transit weapons to Israel. We reclaim
our ports. Our ports are free from
complicity because the people of
Barcelona and Catalonia are free. That's
why we leave from Barcelona.
Thank you Safe. Next we're going to hear
from another global Simud Flatillaa
steering committee member Yasmi Najar.
>> Please we love the energy but we do ask
you to refrain from chanting because
this is a press conference and yes thank
you.
>> Thank you everyone for the energy and
for coming. Um we tried to we set sail
two months ago with the Madlin and then
we set sail with the Hondela and uh we
were attacked, kidnapped and brought
against our will to the Zionist entity.
But we did say that we will be back and
today we show that we are going back
with more countries joining us from
around the world. We are 44 delegations
and we are even more people from around
the world joining this mission. We had
30,000 people signing up to be on this
mission. Of course, we can't take
everyone with us, but you will all be
with us sailing to Gaza to break the
Israeli illegal siege.
I'm
And here is another sailing boat.
So as you can see there are more boats
arriving and we will set sail from here
but we will be joined by many more boats
from different ports. Um we will be
joined from Greece, from Italy, from
Tunis. As I'm speaking to the
journalists here, journalists in in Gaza
are being slaughtered.
We think of them full solidarity with
all journalists live streaming their own
genocide. The slaughter of the
journalists is not by coincidence.
It is deliberate and it is planned
because the stage that we are entering
is the most critical stage. That is why
we have to act fast. And I say we are
entering even though the Palestinians
are the one enduring this slaughter. But
if we don't stand up for Palestine, what
is happening to our humanity? So what is
happening to Palestinians is happening
to the whole world.
I'm speaking as a German citizen.
Germany is the second largest weapon
supplier to this genocide. And not only
Germany is complicit in this genocide,
many more countries are complicit in
this genocide. So we have to stand
against set the colonialism, apartheid
genocide together. We can only do this
together if we if we unify. So if you
are not on this mission, as I said
before, we are all sailing on this
mission together. We are only a small
fraction of a global uprising. We are
mobilizing worldwide. And as we are
sailing, everyone will see what I'm
talking about when I say mass
globalization.
Yes. And thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Yasmine.
Next, we're going to hear from another
global Simude Flatillaa steering
committee member, Greta Tunberg.
Thank you everyone for gathering here
and for standing up for what is right
and for standing on the right side of
history.
Um you all know exactly why we are here.
There is nothing any of us up here could
say that would be new. Palestinians have
been repeating their calls for justice
and for freedom and their will to live
for many many decades now. And they have
been met with deaf ears. But slowly
slowly every day more and more people
are waking up and seeing more of the
absolute atrocities, the genocide, the
mass slaughtering that Israel is
committing.
And the question here today is not why
we are sailing. This story is not at all
about the mission that we are about to
embark. The story here is about
Palestine. The story here is how people
are being deliberately deprived of the
very basic means to survive.
And the story here is how the world can
be silent and how those in power, those
who are supposed to represent us are in
every possible way betraying and failing
Palestinians and all oppressed peoples
of the world.
They are failing to uphold international
law. They are failing to do their most
basic legal duties to act to prevent a
genocide to stop their complicity and
support for an apartheid stage apartheid
state and the occupation and the
genocide of Palestinians. Israel are
very clear about their genocidal intent.
They want to erase the Palestinian
nation. They want to take over the Gaza
Strip. And if that doesn't make people
act, if that doesn't make people go out
of their couch and take action, fill the
streets, get organized, then I don't
know what will. And personally, I am
terrified
of how people can go on with their
everyday life, accepting this genocide,
watching a live stream genocide on their
phones and then pretend like nothing is
happening. Palestinians have been
dehumanized to such an extent that they
are only spoken of in terms of numbers
and UN resolutions.
But this story is also about a global
uprising about how people are stepping
up when our governments fail to do so.
For every politician that is fueling the
genocide, further environmental and
climate destruction and further
colonization and fascism, there will be
people escalating the resistance against
that. And that is what we are trying to
do. do. And that is why we are
mobilizing people from
that is why we are mobilizing people
from all over the world coming back even
stronger with dozens of boats because
there is simply no alternative.
We know what is at stake and what we are
doing here is using our extreme
privilege by living in a free world to
listen to and act upon the calls of
Palestinians.
Them telling us to step up and end our
complicity.
Yeah.
Thank you GA.
Thank you so much.
Now we're going to hear from another
global zamut flatillaa steering
committee member. He has come from a
very a very far away long way to be
here. This is Muhammad Nadir al- Nuri
and I'm gonna pass the microphone to
him.
And a very good morning everyone.
It is happening guys. We are setting
sail.
And today we are not just watching
history in the making. We are a part of
it and we are writing history with our
own hands. We have been waiting too long
for these governments to act. We have
been waiting too long for these leaders
to take action and now we have taken the
responsibility
to take action in our own h own hands
and to start moving. It is a very big
day for us coming from Sumutnantara
which consists of 10 countries from
Southeast Asia and South Asia because
today in the 31st of August it is not
just the time to set sail for the global
Sumud Flotillaa but it also marks our
independence day harima in Malaysia.
So we for Malaysians,
we are marking this day also as the
starts of an independent Palestine
by the hands of the people together as a
people until we reach our goal. When we
talk about Sumud in our country, people
ask us what is the meaning of Sumud?
And most interestingly in our country
there is a word that's quite similar to
sumud which is sumut which means ants
and this is how we are moving today like
a small colony of ants fierce working
together moving together and protecting
our queen that is Palestine and
Palestine as our queen will be
We from we from Malaysia
with Sumut Nantara
are representing 10 countries Pakistan,
Maldivs, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal,
Bhutan, Thailand, Indonesia, Thai,
Philippines,
Brunai and several other countries.
And I think we are one of the fathers
who have traveled here about 20 hours to
be in front of you and to tell you that
this is not a movement moved only by the
by the west. It is not a movement only
moved by the global south. It is not a
movement only by the global west, a
global north, but it is a global
movement where each and every beating
heart is on this mission to save the
people of Palestine, to stop the
genocide and to stop the famine. And we
are proud.
We are very very proud as Malaysians
as today we can tell
everyone that the patron of our own
Sumud Lantara
which means Malay Archipelago
is our own very distinguished prime
minister Young Ahmed Brahhammed Dri
Anoir Ibrahim who did not just agree to
become the patron of Sumutnara
but he also
mentioned a $24 million package for
Palestine from the Malaysians.
So,
so this is
a truly moving event
and alhamdulillah everyone is a part of
it. Please pay your part. Please play
your part and please pay your part also.
And inshallah we will move together. We
will reach Gaza and we will liberate
Palestine.
Thank you.
All right.
Next you're going to hear from another
global Simud Plotella steering committee
member, Thiago Aila.
Okay, thank you Hannah. Thank you
everyone for being here. It's such an
honor to see this mobilization to be
here in Catalunia. I would like to say
that we are very very happy to see the
mobilization that you managed to do
here. This mission was supposed to be
impossible if not for an outstanding
determination of the people of the
world. It's amazing to see that when we
decide to do something together, we go
beyond that idea that we cannot do
anything that our only our only mission
or our only capacity to do is to work
work work and compete and compete and
accumulate material goods. We have the
capacity to achieve great
accomplishments once we put collective
action, collective intelligence to work.
So we have many people here that have
been preparing this launch event that
have been preparing this press
conference that have been preparing each
and every single boat, crew, captains,
mechanics, cooks, logistic team
everywhere, not only here but in all of
our ports. This has been the honor of my
life to work with these people and has
been so amazing to see because we know
that this is not the first mission. The
siege exists for 18 years over Gaza as
part of eight decades of genocide and
ethnic cleansing that structured itself
into an aparite colonial state and which
is led not by a religion but by a racist
and supremacist ideology called Zionism.
And this ideology is promoting the most
horrific violations. And when we look at
history, oppressive regimes like this,
they think they are invincible until
they fall. When we look at the aparite
in South Africa, it was the same thing.
Until the indigenous people there
resisted in any way they could, until
international solidarity made a
difference as well. And that's exactly
what we're here to do. We are in
solidarity with the Palestinian people.
We never forget that we are part of a
global uprising that's mobilizing not
only boat missions but has been doing
demonstrations, has been promoting
boycott, has been disrupting the arm
factories despite all the
criminalization that the supposed
democracies and guardians of human
rights and civil liberties would do
against them because we know when
there's a genocide we cannot negotiate
with them. We need to isolate them. We
need to dehydrate this system of death.
We live in a system that exploits,
oppress and destroy nature in its every
day and enables genocide like this. So
we are not doing going only on a boat
mission. We are building an
internationalist mass movement to be
part of the people who attend to the
historical calling of our generation.
In 18 years of the siege, the very first
missions that attempted to break the
siege was already in 2008. It was by
then the free Gaza movement. And the
first five missions they made to Gaza.
This is very important that we never
forget. The first boat that made to Gaza
in 2008 was the first boat to dock after
40 years since 1967 when the military
occupation of whole historical Palestine
started. So it's very important that we
never forget missions already broke the
siege once after that 37 boats tried to
do this journey. Some of them were
defeated by bureaucratic warfare because
the Zionist entity pressure the nation
states, the governments, the coast
guard, the maritime agents, the
insurance companies, they pressure
everyone not to allow our mission to
sail. And that's why here in Catalonia,
we are so glad to see that we are going
past that. They are not stopping us
through this way. But some of these
missions, they were also stopped by
attacks. In 2008, they tried to ram one
of our boats and the boat almost sunk.
In 2010 they killed 10 of our
participants. By then it was already the
freedom flotillaa coalition and four
months ago they bombed our boat the
conscience between Malta and Italy. So
they tried to do everything and also
they intercepted and kidnapped so many
people. But when we were there in
Israeli prison and people were saying
were you not afraid how hard it was to
be in prison. We were always saying what
Greta says that the story is not about
us. When we think we're not afraid, we
think that the risk that we go through
in a mission like this is just a small
fraction of the risk that every
Palestinian in Gaza has to endure every
single day. When we were in prison, were
saying, "What? How was the treatment?"
Of course, it was bad, but it's nothing
compared to 10,000 Palestinians that are
in Israeli dungeons right now. 400 of
them are children. And that's why we
need to keep moving. And people say,
"What about your family? What about the
family of every Palestinian people? We
all here have families, but there's
nothing more dangerous for us and for
our families than to live on a world
that accepts a genocide. So, we need to
keep on going. That's why we say we are
building this internationalist mass
movement. We're not inviting people to
like our content or to share just our
content. We're not inviting people to
join us. Right now, the boat missions is
not they are not going alone. They are
together with massive demonstrations
with massive encampments because right
now is the entire political pressure
that will break the siege. People keep
talking about the chances to break the
siege like any other mission. We need to
prepare and we train our participants in
nonviolence. We are very very strict in
the responsibilities that we have on
this mission to make sure that everyone
returns alive with the physical
integrity and free. We all want to live
a long and beautiful life and that's why
we prepare and that's why we want to
make sure that the whole world has this
right as well. That's why we are in
solidarity. So and that's why we say
that any attack, any interception that
they try to make, they are committing a
war crime and we need to uprise. We need
to rise up in any case of that. But we
are really really believing that we will
break the siege because this time after
37 boats trying to set sail to Gaza, we
have gathered more boats than all the
boats combined that ever tried to
accomplish this mission. We are taking
more people than all the people combined
that ever tried to break the siege of
Gaza from all over the world from Sumud
Antara from Sumud Convoy from the global
movement to Gaza. Many people here that
you know from the boat missions of the
freedom for coalition we are all
together in this and that's why we're
very very confident that the whole world
will respond to the historical calling.
Rise up the moment is right now. The
full invasion of Gaza city increase our
chance of urgency. Every minute and
every day counts. That's why we are
really relying on you. It's not just the
boat. We are not even the story. This
boat should not even exist. The
governments fail, we sail, but we sail
together as a global uprising. Thank you
so much for coming.
Thank you, Thiago.
So, next we're going to hear from Liam
Cunningham, who you we appreciate the
enthusiasm, but okay. Liam Cunningham,
who you might know as Sir Davos from
Game of Thrones. um he has had a long
history of supporting the Palestinian
solidarity and um has also had a long
history of of supporting maritime
missions. So Liam, thank you so much for
being here and go ahead.
>> Um good morning everyone. Um as the
previous speaker said, it's not about
boats and uh the genocide is not about
numbers or UN resolutions.
Um it's about people
um and specifically the people of Gaza.
And we should really have a voice from
somebody there at this press conference.
Uh, and I'd like to introduce you to a
young lady and her name is Fatima and
she's
>> absolutely gorgeous. You can if you can
see her there. Uh, and um, she has a
lovely voice. Uh, and I'm going to uh,
let you listen to a couple of seconds of
her singing. Okay, one sec.
so Fatima is singing that song
uh because she's making arrangements for
her own funeral.
She wants that song uh sung in the event
of her death.
What sort of a world have we slid into?
What sort of a human hole
have we found ourselves in when
children, beautiful angels like that at
five or six years old are making their
own funeral arrangements?
Where does that leave us? How are how
are our children and our grandchildren
going to look on look back at this
horrific episode uh in our the existence
of our species? How can we look at our
grandkids when they look at us and say,
"How did you let that happen?"
So, it is disgusting that a child or
anybody is put in that position.
And the end of that story, I'll keep it
brief. Four days ago, Fatima was killed.
She was killed by the Israelis. Somebody
is going to be singing that song over
that child's corpse.
That's why I'm at this table. And that's
why the flotilla is important. And
western governments
should have made these boats
unnecessary to be making this trip.
And the fact that you guys are here and
the flotilla is happening is an
indication
of the world's failure to uphold
international law and humanitarian law.
And it's a it is a shameful shameful
period in the history of of uh of our
world. and we should be collectively
ashamed and we need to get up and stop
this as soon as we possibly can. Thank
you very much.
>> Palestine.
>> Thank you, Liam.
>> All right. We love We love the
enthusiasm. Thank you.
Next, we're going to hear from Irish
comedian and activist who we're so
grateful to have here and on this
mission, Tai Kicki.
Thank you guys. Um,
as my comrades have said, it's um
there's nothing
there's nothing uh
>> I'm being upstaged
again.
That's a big boat.
>> Oh, wow.
>> Mothership.
>> Woo!
Wow!
Hallelujah. Godl
I really hope I'm on that one.
Um, I just want to say guys, as other
people have said, there's nothing
extraordinary about what we're doing. I'
I've been quoting Yasm mean all week
when she says that this is the bare
minimum of of what we could or should do
to just show basic empathy and
solidarity with people who are starving
to death. Myself and Liam are from a
country whose history is pockmarked by
genocide and man-made starvation. So I'm
very proud that every time I turn a
corner here at the moment I meet someone
new from Ireland who's part of the crew
or part of the participants. But I would
say that the Irish people are
incredible, but by but like a lot of
Western governments, the Irish
government are really, really cowardly.
And it's very important for us to to
point that out. I'm sure I speak for a
lot of the Irish participants when I say
that. I would rather not have to go on
this boat. I've got young kids at home.
Um I'm not a boats person. If the Irish
government stepped in and grew a spine
and sanctioned this rogue state and put
pressure on this rogue state to stop
slaughtering people and starving people
to death, then ordinary civilians
wouldn't have to take three or four or
five or in Thiago's case probably a year
out of his life to plan this mission. So
what's extraordinary is not us doing
this mission. What's extraordinary is
the level of cowardness and weakness in
world governments, in western
governments to allow a man-made famine
and extermination to take place in front
of our eyes every day of the week.
And I'll just close by saying having
watched these incredible people, they
won't say it themselves, they say that
they're just doing the bare minimum, but
having watched their dedication, the
level of training, the hard work that
has gone in behind the scenes, I'm just
rocking up and participating, getting on
a boat, that's the easy part. These
people have come together and built a
collective that in my opinion the entity
should be really really worried about
because it keeps growing. Its energy is
extraordinary and the people who've been
on these missions before come back in
spite of the the attacks they faced in
in spite of the slander they faced they
come back bigger and better and stronger
and this is just the beginning. Free
Palestine
Thank you so much, Tiger.
>> All right.
Thank you so much for your energy. It
means a lot.
Thank you. Thank you. Next, we're going
to hear from award-winning Spanish actor
Eduardo Fernandez.
Hi,
I I from this city. I I'm from
Barcelona. I don't have words for speak
about Gata. It's too much. Every day,
every second, every minute, every It's
too much. And Ga is a mirror. Uh I speak
Spanish now.
Do you speak?
>> Okay. So, GA is a mirror that reflects
us whether we want to be reflected in it
or not.
>> Yes.
Yes.
Each ship that sails toward Gaza is a
cry for dignity and a reminder that the
sea should be neither a border nor a
prison.
In the Mediterranean, we have seen again
and again how the water becomes a grave
when human rights are denied on land.
The flatilla that is planning to break
the blockade is not a threat.
It is an act of humanity in the face of
huge brutality.
What is happening in Ga can no longer be
disguised as a conflict when an entire
population is besieged, bombed, deprived
of food, medicine, and water. We are
witnessing genocide in real time.
>> To remain silent is to be complicit.
Silence kills just as much as bombs
kill. Europe, which so many times swore
never again, once again looks the other
way while thousands of innocents are
slaughtered.
>> All right, we have time for a few
questions. I will be asking three
questions at a time. When you ask your
question, please start with your name,
uh your outlet or your publication and
then ask your question. All right, who
has questions?
>> Go ahead.
>> Thank you.
Tamat from the new humanitarian. Um,
>> you are activists and you are doing a
humanitarian mission. The humanitarian
actors have failed to follow suit. What
should they do and what are you asking
them to do?
>> We'll go with two more questions.
>> Hi, Julia Maha from the German radio
public radio. I'm just wondering if you
could tell me about under which flag you
are sailing if they're different flags.
It could be interesting.
>> Thank you. Okay, one more question.
>> Hi uh Christopher Nepa from Reuters. Uh
do you expect to be stopped uh near uh
Israel?
>> All right. Who would like to answer that
first question about humanitarian need?
and what they should do.
>> It's okay. I guess
>> um ju just before answering the question
and one one thing that we have not uh
commented on during the intervention it
slipped our mind because this mission is
about life because it's about bringing
um every memory to what's happening in
in Palestine and because what's going on
in Palestine did not start 202 months
ago and because um the the the ethnic
cleansing in Palestine have been going
on for so many years, our full fleet,
the whole campaign, the ships that are
leaving from all the ports will be named
on Palestinian historical cities because
whatever they do in Palestine, we will
keep bringing life through all the
missile that we can as Palestinians. So
the campaign decided to give these names
to all our ships
for for
uh the question about the humanitarian
organizations. It is a failure of the
system itself and not the organizations.
Those humanitarian organizations are
designed to work within um natural
disasters to work in conflicts where the
perpetu is not um uh acting with the
support of all the other countries.
Those are designed to go to support
people in a situation not when a country
is politically involved to erase the
population and being supported of so
many other governments. So the question
is not related to the humanitarian
organizations themselves. When the
United Nation created for example the
Onroa which is an refugee agency for the
Palestinian refugees, there was one
condition within that that creation that
it will only serve as a humanitarian
organization and at the same time when
they created Agnore which is the agency
for the refugees of the world. It
provided a character of protection for
this organization. So it is a system
that comes from above where it
discriminates against people. It create
differences and it supports the
complicity and genocide. What the crimes
that are being committed in uh in in
Palestine against a humanitarian
organization such as Onroa, Food Kitchen
and many others who were killed, pumped
and assassinated trying to intervene.
Just keep in mind this is not a
humanitarian conflict. Today we are
dealing with starvation as a result of
an ethnic cleansing and genocide
campaign that being carried out against
the population of Gaza. the the
confiscation of land and displace
displacement of Palestinians in the
refugee camps of West Bank. It is a
country led by people that is committing
those crimes and imposing on people all
those different sufferings. A
humanitarian organization is not
failing. The whole system, the whole
governments and states are failing the
Palestinian people. And that's why it is
on civil society to stand and lead the
way. As my colleague said before
to answer the question if we expect to
be stopped. Um we are facing a Zionist
entity and we have seen the crimes they
have been committing not only for 2
years but for almost 80 years. Uh but
the question should be why would they
stop a purely humanitarian mission? We
carry no weapons. We are no threat. We
are carrying humanitarian aid to a
starving population.
What we should also ask is why are the
governments around the world are not
acting? Why are they not sanctioning
Israel and lifting the siege so that the
humanitarian aid can enter Gaza?
This mission
is acting within the law.
Any act of violence against this
mission, against the civilians that are
sailing with us, would be another war
crime added to the long list of war
crimes of the Zionist entity. So that is
why we demand safe passage and we demand
the lift of the siege and we demand that
aid gets in immediately and we demand
that Israel is sanctioned. Thank you.
Regard regarding the question of flag,
it's very important that we ask
ourselves why should it matter which
flag we sail from? And the reason why
people ask which flag we sail is because
Israel not only attacks our boats,
intercept our boats and kidnap our
people, but they also apply the biggest
political pressure under every single
government. And the reason why they ask
is because many of the times they manage
through their political pressure to pull
out the flags. So that's why on the
biggest mission ever attempted, we are
not going with a single flag. We have
many boats, more boats than ever
combined that try to pull up this
mission. And we have many, many flags
and we have many, many, many
nationalities as part of this. This time
is the whole world against the genocide.
We always say that in a planet of 8
billion people, the vast social majority
of the world knows that starving
children to death is wrong. that bombing
hospitals, schools, shelters is simply
wrong and they are willing to take a
step up, a step further into stopping
this violation. So this time we need to
understand that every flag represents a
state but were carrying the hearts and
the minds of millions and billions of
people. The people that have learned
through the Palestinian immense summood
resiliency, have learned what is
colonization, what is Zionism, what is
imperialism, that learn what is their
own country and their fake liberties on
their own country. These young people,
these million of people of this new
generation that learn this from the
Palestinian people, they'll never again
get back to sleep. They'll never again
believe their lies. So that's why we
know that we are about to see a major
shift coming on. But the problem is that
we have a sense of urgency. Every 10
minutes a Palestinian children is killed
in Gaza. Every one day at least two or
three children are starved to death in
Gaza. So that's why we need to hurry
because the sense of urgency needs to be
maximum right now. And like Yasmin said,
we all hearing about the prime minister
of the Zionist entity having a meeting
to talk about what will they do about a
mission like that. But what should they
do is not to interfere because they're
prohibited to interfere by international
court of justice provisional rulings. In
the case opened by South Africa for the
crime of genocide, Israel is prohibited
to stop any humanitarian mission that
try to get to Gaza. So what they should
do is stop occupying a people, stop
trying to prevent people from being
together with these people that are
suffering such a huge violation. So
that's why we do not fear them. This is
very important for people to understand.
They have the weapons, but that's all
they have. They have the weapons, they
hate, they violence, we have all the
rest. We have solidarity. We have the
history of anticolonial struggle that
shows when the people we start this long
march to freedom and the words join
them, it's unstoppable. So we will never
ever stop. We do not fear them. That's
why we continue growing. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much.
All right, we have time for
two more questions. Um, go ahead.
>> Hi, Brennan Gutener with Level 12 News.
Have there been any obstacles faced with
trying to put this flotilla together?
any attempts to pressure it to not
depart, anything along those lines.
>> All right, one more. Thank you for your
question.
Any other questions?
>> The associated plan if you cannot make
it there if for some reason you are not
allowed safe passage. If you have any
plan,
>> thank you. Associated Press asked if we
have a plan B if we do not make safe
passage.
To the second question, our plan B, if
Israel once again decides to violate
international law and prevent
humanitarian aid from getting into Gaza,
our plan B is to come back even bigger.
Um,
simple as that.
Our aim
our aim is very clear. We aim to set
sail with dozens of boat to deliver
humanitarian aid to break Israel's
illegal and inhuman siege, open up a
humanitarian corridor and then deliver
more aid. But let's be very clear, we do
not just need aid to get into Gaza. We
need an end to the occupation. We need
an end to the apartheid system that
Palestinians have been living under for
many, many decades. This is not a
mission of charity. This is an act of
solidarity.
But
what Palestinians are facing is a
manmade
famine. It is not just the result of
Israel preventing aid from coming in. It
is also the result of Israel in a
systematic way hindering Palestinians
from producing their own food. Why are
Palestinians not allowed to fish? Why
cannot they not grow food? Why are they
being deprived of every means to sustain
life and society? Why are children not
being able to have an education?
Those are the questions that we should
be asking. So let's keep that in mind
that this is a mission to challenge the
extremely violent business as usual and
an international system that is failing
to uphold international law and
preventing states such as Israel from
committing the worst possible war
crimes. Thank
Um
about about the the first question in
terms of challenges and uh and pressure.
I mean I don't even think that we are
able yet to realize that we have done
all of this in two months like the whole
organization the whole structure the
whole movement the arrangement of those
ships not only on this port but on all
the other ports that we have mentioned
the decision was taken to build this uh
this mission and to start um this global
solidarity movement as my colleagues
mentioned on the 22nd of June of this
year after We came back from three
missions um by north of Africa with the
Summud convoy by my colleagues on the
Madlin and us on the global march to
Gaza then global movement to Gaza. We
tried to break the siege in three
different ways and then we realized that
we have to unite we have to bring our
efforts together. We have to mobilize
the whole world to stand against
genocide and against all oppressions. So
the the difficulties, the challenges to
to be able to achieve this mission from
the beginning immense knowing the
political pressure um that will be
applied on different entities, knowing
the logistical challenges of working
with people from all around the world
and we have to acknowledge that um
deciding on Barcelona was the right
choice for the start of this mission.
Catalonia, their stand against genoc
genocide, people um civil society
organizations, social movement, the
municipality of Barcelona, the
delegation of of governments of
Barcelona, um every everyone that we
have approached in Barcelona, even the
parliament, they said Barcelona will
stand with you. Barcelona will give you
all the facilities to be able to launch.
We haven't faced any official difficulty
in terms of achieving that. But we have
also to say without our volunteers,
without the people who have been working
literally 22 hours a day for the past
two months, we wouldn't be able to be
here today. Their work is immense.
Guaranteeing the safety of the ships,
checking on every security element that
is needed, arranging all the
participants to come. We have hundreds
of participants coming from many
delegations around the world that are
here in Barcelona today. We have people
who came by buses from all the
provenence of Barcel of of Spain because
they want to be here today. Every
everyone today is standing together to
make this mission success. So
yes,
we have been contacted by so many
organizations, people who want to
support in providing a humanitarian aid
that we can take on our ships. So in
this time we have been lucky that the
political pressure has been faced by a
strong solid social movement in
Catalonia that managed to bring
authority to the right side of history
because we don't want our authorities to
continue being complicit
while we are sailing from the port of
Barcelona. What all the facilities that
we have been faced so far are not
enough. The Spanish government and the
port of Barcelona and all the ports of
Spain have to be clean from complicity.
The people have said their word. It is
time for the Spanish government to stop
all type of armed transit of ships that
carry weapons and go through our ports
to provide the genocidal government of
Israel with weapons to kill
Palestinians. There should be a full a
full sanctions as my colleagues said
before full sanctions imposed on the
government of Israel. The people are
here. It's very clear during the past
three days we have been seen the people
of Catalonia the people of the different
provenence in Spain contacting us. The
people from a from all the world are
here. They are the ones who made us face
those challenges and succeed. This is
why we are sailing today because of you.
So once again, thank you Barcelona.
>> Thank you so much to our entire panel
here um for sharing and and and
supporting this mission. And thank you
all for joining. Now we're going to have
a couple remarks from two incredible
leaders. Adakalao who is the former
mayor
of Barcelona
and Mariana Martagua
from Portugal parliamentarian.
Thank you so much for joining here.
Thank you very much.
I will speak first in Catalan and I will
speak. Sorry, miss.
>> It's okay here.
>> Nobody want it's brief. It's okay.
>> Thank you very much. I will speak first
in Spanish.
for
Agenda Barcelona.
Gracias.
init. Fore!
Foreign! Foreign!
You are not alone. We sail. Thank you.
Uh, thank you all. I'm Mariana from
Portugal. Uh, first of all, I want to
thank the the team here, the ones that
organized all this. They did in two
months what all of our governments could
not do in the past two years. In two
months, they put together a mission to
take humanitarian aid to Gaza. Something
that our governments do not want to do.
And today, we are here. thousands of
people. We'll have hundreds of people on
those boats. But we know that every one
of us will will have at our own
countries millions of people supporting
this mission. Millions of people who
refuse to accept genocide, to accept the
illegal actions by the is Israeli
government, to refuse to accept
blockage, refu refuse to accept
starvation as a war crime, as a weapon
to occupy, to do an apartheid, to occupy
a state. And we refuse genocide not only
because of Palestine. It is because of
Palestine, but not only because of
Palestine. We refuse genocide because
they don't want to be governed by
warlords. Because when Israelis kill
Palestinian people against the law, they
are not only murdering children. They
are murdering international law. They
are murdering human rights law. They are
murdering the safety of the people of
the world. They are murdering humanity.
So Palestinian people
with their resistance,
with their summood,
they are saving us. We are being saved
by Palestinian people. The world,
humanity is being saved by Palestinian
people. And when our governments do
nothing in face of such a genocide, when
our governments do nothing, then we come
together and we do it for them. Because
when people come together, comrades, we
are a superpower. We are more powerful
than any government, than any army, than
any regime. We are a superpower of
In Portuguese, we say,
"Let's go sail."
Thank you both so much.
So, we're done with this portion of the
morning. At 11:30, there are going to be
some speeches uh from organizers at this
stage. That's at 11:30. And that will be
in Spanish. So, feel free to meander
around. I think it's what time is it
right now? 11:16. So, in 15 minutes.
>> Thank you, Hannah. Just a safety
instruction to everyone. Please. Now,
this is a place that where we need to
maintain some safety requirements for
our boats. I'm sure all of you
understand. So we were asked here by our
team of security to ask to everyone to
please to go to the main stage to ask
for the press when there's dismantling
here. And please everyone do not try to
board our boats. I know that we all love
the idea of joining together. I'm sure
we have many many opportunities to do
this. But our boats is a a very a place
of high alert today because last mission
they they sabotaged our boats. So I'm
sure you understand that. So please do
not try to board our boats. We are
together at this and please head to the
main stage.