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LIVE Interview From Gaza Flotilla as Threats Escalate
00:20:06
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. I am so thrilled to be joined now by one of the members of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla coalition who's on board the Medline halfway to Gaza. Thiago, thank you so much for joining me on the Empire Files. This is amazing.
- [00:20]
B
It's a pleasure to be here with you. Thank you for your amazing work. And we're here on board the Medline. The sun is about to set. Beautiful day at sea in the Mediterranean.
- [00:31]
A
It's day four. This is one month after Israeli drones bombed the first humanitarian aid vessel that you were supposed to join, as well as dozens of other humanitarians. Tiago, this is one month ago. Undeterred, you have organized relentlessly and decided to do it again to, to launch another flotilla. This is one month later. You are halfway to Gaza right now. Full transparency. All eyes on deck. The mad talk about who is with you and what you guys are carrying, because we know what the US Government's saying, we know what Israeli officials are saying. They're going to say that you're going to coordinate with Hamas and bringing weapons on board and whatever they want to say to justify the brutality and aggression against selfless humanitarians. Tiago, so talk about what you have on board and who's on this mission with you.
- [01:19]
B
It's very important for us to be able to talk about this because they've been saying this for all of the 17 years since the Freedom Flotilla mission started, even before they had the name of Freedom Flotilla, before it was the pre Gaza movement. So the blockade starts in 2007, 2008. The first mission starts. Every single one of them, they said it was an insurgent mission, it was carrying weapons and not a humanitarian mission. All of them, of course, they were lies. But by the moment that the world realized that they were lies, the news was over. So they didn't have the interest in taking care of it anymore and showing that to the world. But right now we made a commitment that we'll be bringing the aid together with the community and we'll be doing this in a very transparent way for everyone to see. Every single bag of rice that we put on board our boat. So we are carrying food, we are carrying medicine, we are carrying crutches, we are carrying prosthetics for amputated children, we are carrying water filters. And instead of like the Zionists do that, they carry bombs that have been signed by very cruel people, the community in Catania, in Italy, they signed on the flour bags, the rice bags, sending messages of love to Gaza. So it's a beautiful thing. I'm so proud of what we accomplished here so far. Because the Medellin is a small boat, fits only 12 people and has 18 meters only. So it has a limited capacity of cargo, but we put everything we could but still navigate safely, but still a drop in the ocean for the necessities of Gaza. Even if we had huge cargo ships like we had in the last year, it would still be a drop in the ocean despite our small size. The greatness of this mission is that in solidarity with the Palestinian people, we are being the vanguard to open up people's humanitarian corridor. So even if we were in a kayak, but we are opening a way for more boats to join later, it would be already worth the mission. But we are in a mission of 12 people moving a lot of stuff and a lot of solidarity around the world of people who are finally understanding the 18 year old siege, the eight decades genocide as well. And yeah, we are pushing for it. There's nothing that's going to stop us now.
- [03:32]
A
It's amazing. It's incredible, especially given what happened one month ago. Israel basically showed that it is, you know, has so much impunity that it can bomb a humanitarian vessel thousands of miles from Gaza with no backlash at all, no consequences. But Thiago, you have a seven month old, if I'm not mistaken. You have an infant baby daughter at home.
- [03:56]
B
You're.
- [03:56]
A
I mean, it's amazing. Tiago, there's, there's activists, Greta Thunberg, there's European diplomats on the ship, journalists. I mean, talk about who is there, who is putting their bodies on the line alongside of you.
- [04:11]
B
When we were thinking, Abby, about who we would invite to this mission and who would be able to come because so hard to be on a mission like this in such a short notice because we just got bombed one month ago and decided to keep on going. So we have both Greta as a climate activist, we have Rima Hassan as a member of European Parliament. We have also me and Yasmina Jar, who are part of the Philofotel coalition, organizers as well. But we have crew, an amazing crew of very capable people that involves two French, one Spanish, one Dutch. We have also a French doctor, we have also a Turkish citizen as well, a participant of our Philoflotel coalitions, a very, very amazing guy named Schweib. And we have two communicators as well, one from Al Jazeera and another from a vehicle, a militant vehicle in France called Blast. So it's very beautiful to see that we are a team of 12 that every day gets stronger and stronger. As a community of resistance, every day gets more and more confident. So last night, when they thought the drones would be scaring us and making us panic, actually, they made us feel more confident that we are more.
- [05:26]
A
Yeah. So, Tiago, talk about what happened there, because I was following. You were on Night Watch. We were supposed to. We've been trying to do this interview for several days. Meta will not let us. Instagram's blocking it. I mean, I'm so thankful we're finally doing this. But, Tiago, you were on Night Watch last night, and it was just shocking because I saw the news that drones were hovering once again. I mean, you had been sailing for three days prior. Nothing had happened yet. I think you were all anticipating. You've certainly been training for this situation. What happened? I mean, were they hovering all night? You know, I know initially there was the Coast Guard drone, but then later, you're pretty sure that there were Israeli drones. Right?
- [06:06]
B
What happened is that at 11:12pm the first drone appeared. We've been doing intensive training, and we knew exactly what we should do in the case of a drone comes. We need to get back to the cockpit and to the top deck as soon as possible, because if it happens like last month, where the drone came and bombed our boat, the Conscience, which was a huge vessel compared to the Medellin, no one died, and even then, it was a miracle. But on the Medline, there is no place that you can bomb with a drone that will not. And after a while, we lost visual contact with this drone. Those drones, they have the capacity of turning off their lights, so maybe just turned off its lights, or maybe it went away, like you said. There's the possibility of this Coast Guard drone from the Greek Coast Guard. And then three hours later, the alarm sounds again for two drones now. And they were circling boats. They were pretty far at the beginning, but they were coming closer. So this is the alert. Because of our surveillance drone, they can see, stay pretty far away with their thermal cameras with many, many devices that they have to do the surveillance that they. They want to do. But they also can use drones for two other things, for psyops, to try to put people in panic, try to make them give up on the mission. And they can also use the drone to attack, either with explosives, either with guns attached to it. So there are many possibilities of what can happen with their drone. And after we've been just bombed one month ago, we could not ignore any of these risks. So we put ourselves on alert again. We sounded the alert Again. And yes, we were waiting for the drone. It would come closer, but then it would step away again. So the. The movement that it was making shows that it's very obvious that it was an intermediary maneuver, because no survey drone keeps coming in and out, in and out. So.
- [08:00]
A
Well, it's. It makes you think of Palestinians, what they endure daily. The. The surveillance drones, the quadcopter drones. I mean, at any given moment, they can be shot and killed, lured out with the sounds of crying infants. It's a. It's actually just the most deranged thing in the world. So I can't even imagine the psychological warfare after having the conscience bomb to have these drones hovering above just to say we can do whatever we want at any given moment. And at that moment, they decided to just buzz around and just scare the hell out of everyone and basically terrorize the crew. Thiago, am I mistaken or was there a member of the crew on the Conscience? And I'm not sure if he's on the Madeline now, whose father was killed during the 2010 flotilla attack.
- [08:43]
B
We had a member on the conscience whose father was killed 15 years ago, but he's not part of the medley. The Turkish population is very mobilized with this because the Conscience, when he was bombed, create a massive, massive demonstration in Turkey. It was beautiful to see. The Turkish people also abominates the starvation of children, the bombing of hospitals and shelters. To be honest, every nation in the world, the social majorities of the world, they are with us in their hearts, in their minds, and every day, more in their actions, they're willing to do more. So we have the global march to Gaza, which is growing. We have the prison of flotilla, who has the attention and the engagement of a lot of people. And we also have the Samutonboy also going from North Africa, from Tunisia, all the way to Gaza. So we have a lot of things going on. A lot of the tide is coming for the Palestine Liberation Movement. And, yeah, I'm feeling very hopeful right now.
- [09:37]
A
It is amazing to see this diverse coalition of humanitarians, internationalists, with an international lens of solidarity for our brothers and sisters in Palestine. TIAGO because we know that oppression anywhere is oppression everywhere. None of us are free until all of us are. And that is what is so incredible about that coalition, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla coalition. Everyone from all walks of life all around the world realizing that they have to do this, that we have to do something. Like you said, concurrently, this is happening with the march to Gaza, where thousands of people are putting their bodies Actually marching themselves physically to do an act of civil disobedience at the gate of the rafa crossing. You guys are doing your part. I mean, it's really astounding and amazing and motivating to me as a human being that when governments have failed abysmally at stopping the most grievous crime that humanity can commit, a state can commit, that people will act selflessly. Tiago, it's amazing. And then, and then you have at the same time sitting government officials threatening the lives of the people on board. I saw a single sitting senator, Lindsey Graham, talking about how Greta Thunberg, you know, she. She better learn how to swim, basically threatening the lives of the people on board. Can you talk about these threats that are being issued from Israeli authorities and u. S. Government officials?
- [10:57]
B
Every single mission of the flotilla has been threatened by them before. So this is not exactly new. But what is new is that they are really not ashamed of being associated with the genocide itself. When we see a shift in some liberal right wing media outlet, for example, and political factions all around the world, we still see a small group that still connects with the genocide. While the others are trying to save face now and pretend they didn't support it, they were not complicit. There's a sector that still insists on that. So actually, to be honest, it grows. But what we always say to them is that we do not fear them. We do not fear their violence. Their violence cannot stop the will of the people to be free. And they've been attacking the flotilla in a small fraction of what they do to the Palestinian people in so many countries, especially in the global south, that we know that there's no option other than keep going. There's no future unless we try to defeat the strategic enemies of our generation. We are testing an alarm here.
- [12:08]
A
No drones cited yet for the. It's just, it's just an alarm bell. I mean, this is amazing. You, you're on the boat right now. Everything is happening real time. Anything could can happen at any moment. Thiago, I just want to ask before we close out, I mean, who are you? Because look, I woke up to. To this horrific situation. The obvious nature of what Israel was back during the initial flotilla attack in 2010 where 10 activists were murdered on board the Mavi Marmara. As someone who has two young children, it's really tough to wrap my mind around the fact that you have decided to put yourself in this situation. I mean, just talk about why.
- [12:51]
B
Well, I was. I'm 38 years old now and I was 18 years old when the first time I read the Communist Manifesto. And then I something way more useful with my life than to be competing with my brothers beside me on a new library of individual society. And I got to know the country, the continent where I'm from, Latin America. And by that moment Latin America was doing a beautiful moments, an uprising of so many leftist governments trying to get rid of colonization and imperialism. And I got so connected with that. And by the same time I got connected with the Palestinian cause because 2005, 2006 was the moment that they started to evacuate the colonies of Gaza. In 2005, 2006, they escalated the genocide once again and tried to invade Lebanon. And that shocked me because the same thing that so many people felt in the last two years about the genocide, the escalation of the genocide, I felt 20 years ago, 19 years ago, 2006. And I was concerning, I was thinking, Abby, where is international law? Where is the United Nations? Where is the biggest powers, the biggest countries in this world? Why are they not doing anything? The same shock that people had this last two, the two years I had 19 years ago. And I was so disgusted by it that I decided to help and to be useful. I've been to the West Bank, I've been to the territories occupied in 1948, I've been to Lebanon, I've been to most of the countries in the region. And after the genocide escalated, I tried to get to Gaza through rafah border in November 2023. Pretty much what the global march Gaza is trying to do collectively. Now we are part of a global conscientious convoy and we were stopped and we had other opportunities as well to try the Freedom Flotilla mission to try to break the siege. But we were defeated by bureaucratic warfare and many other things. So I'm saying all of this because right now I've been doing this for my life, for longer than I haven't been doing. I've been doing this for. I lived 18 years before and now I have a. I'm a proud father of one year for a month and 23 year old daughter called. 23 years old daughter called Teresa. And yeah, and me and my wife, we always discuss this. My wife is also a militant and we do our plans together. We decide which mission I'm going or not, what am I going to do concerning our all support groups, our social movements. So we decide in meetings which organizing strategy we should take collectively, which ones should I attend, which I should not attend.
- [15:32]
A
And yes, we decided resistance born out of Love and community. And, and that's what's so incredible and powerful about it, Thiago, is that you found your family through the struggle. And that's what's so incredible. I mean, just the community that you've built on the flotilla and, and all of us around the world who are watching the deck of the Madeline and, and being there in spirit, talk about the scenarios, because I know that Israel's already said they're prepared to, to have you approach, that the naval, you know, their navy's on guard, and that they are willing and ready to respond. And I know that you have obviously been training in the potential scenarios coming up, but I guess just talk about what the, what the actual plan is here.
- [16:14]
B
Yes. So what we may face now that we defeated the bureaucratic warfare, we are the sea. So even if they take away our flags, we simply don't care. We just put a Palestinian flag instead of the British flag here. And we go way more proud, to be honest, because the British were also responsible. British imperialism was responsible for what happens in Palestine right now. But. So we cannot be defeated by bureaucracy warfare. But that can happen. All the three scenarios. An interception, an attack, or we can get to Gaza. And that's what we're working for. We're doing our best. The way to improve our chances, it is to make this mission huge, make the costs of an interception, especially the cost of an attack, something that designers simply cannot afford. That we can guarantee that if they try to kill 12 unarmed people in a humanitarian mission here, this will be their death sentences. And that they will understand, not only that they lost any possibility of having any type of PR or moral high ground on anything, or they will simply let us pass. They will let us. They will not attack us because to be honest, we never get into contact with their territorial waters. We go from international waters to Palestinian territorial waters. They should not control Gaza shore. They should not be stealing oil and gas from Gaza maritime area. So they cannot commit this war crime. And even if they do, we must make sure that they understand that it will be hell for them. And that if they Destroy a flotilla, 10 new flotillas, 100 new flotillas, a thousand new flotillas will come right afterwards. And they cannot stop this wave. That's what we're aiming for. Because if they intercept, we have seen this before, they intercept, they come, take control of the boat with a lot of violence. They kidnap people, take to Ashdod port. After a few days of arrest, people are deported to their home countries. And if they attack, they simply kill people or bomb the boat. We get to Gaza, what we do is that we're going to dock, we're going to unload our cargo, we're going to distribute our cargo, we're going to do medical treatment, documentation of the violations, and we simply return because the humanitarian corridor will have been opened and we have a duty to do which is to bring more aids, to bring more sheep, more people, and be on the next journey of this humanitarian corridor to continue breaking this horrific siege. That's risk assessments like this, Abi. We prepare for every single scenario, even the very, very worst. But we do our best and we work so hard to achieve the best scenario, which in our case is to to answer the historical calling of our generation, to break the siege, to stop starvation. That's what is everyone's heart right now. And that's what we are working very hard to accomplish.
- [18:57]
A
And I hope that you reach that goal. We all do. Tiago, all eyes on deck the Madeleine. It's amazing to see people like Greta Thunberg on board too, because as we know Thiago as anti imperialists, we understand that this is a global struggle for humanity's survival. The environmental cost, the. The imperialist cost of war, the horrific cost of colonization and colonialism. It's all multi prongs of the same battle. And we are at the front lines. You are on the front lines. Thank you so much. Tiago Avila. I'm so honored to call you my friend and my brother. My heart is with you on that boat. I wish I could be there. Thank you so much,
- [19:44]
B
so much. Thank you for your support. Thank you to the Empire files for opening so many hearts and minds to our generation.
- [19:53]
A
Thank you so much. Tiago. Free Gaza. Bye.