Watch our full, unpaywalled interview with Freedom Flotilla organizers Huwaida Arraf and Thiago Ávila here:
The Conscience, a civilian ship that is part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was attempting to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza when it was was attacked by drones last week. Greta Thunberg, who was scheduled to board the ship on its way to Gaza, as well as organizers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Israeli media, blamed Israel for the attack. Israel, for its part, has not denied responsibility.
We spoke with Freedom Flotilla organizers Huwaida Arraf and Thiago Ávila who explain the mission of the Conscience, describe the attack, and their commitment to breaking the ilegal and inhumane siege on Gaza.
Useful Idiots: There were calls from the ship during the attack. Were you guys scared at this point that people were potentially going to die?
Huwaida Arraf: We lost contact with them for many hours and we knew that the ship was bombed and that it was taking on water. So we were very concerned. We organized people to take a couple of boats and sail out to them, but they were prevented from reaching them twice. The Maltese authorities prevented them from reaching the ship. We were pressuring the Maltese authorities to let them get the people off the ship. And the requests continue to be inexplicably denied.
The vessel right now is still in the place where it was bombed. We are still asking the Maltese authorities to let us in. But the crew all remains on the ship for now.
Useful Idiots: Have you confirmed that this drone attack was carried out by Israel?
Thiago Ávila: It has come to light that just hours before Israel bombed our ship, there was an Israeli military plane in Maltese airspace that flew right over the area where the ship was bombed before going back to Israel. And there are a lot of other factors that indicate that there are other countries that knew.
We have a situation where not only is the United States obviously fully on board with what Israel is doing and enabling it, but other countries are not only not living up to their obligations under international law, but they're also hampering civilian efforts to do something about it. People should ask themselves ‘why should civilians try to organize a boat and aid and try to confront the Israeli military to make their way into Gaza which is illegally besieged like this, when countries should be doing this?’ But not only are countries not putting aid on ships and insisting on getting into Gaza, they are doing Israel's work by trying to sabotage our efforts.
Huwaida also recalls being on another ship in 2010 which suffered a lethal attack from Israel that killed nine humanitarians.
Huwaida Arraf: The reason why the flotillas exist is because the people of Gaza are suffering a genocide and they're under illegal Israeli blockade for eighteen years. And now for more than two months without a single bottle of water entering Gaza. So that's why people are not with their families here on the flotilla, because we are here for a purpose, to serve as a solidarity mission to the Palestinian people.
Watch our full, unpaywalled talk with the Freedom Flotilla organizers where we watch video of the crew during the attack, Thiago explains the role that President Lula’s Brazil has in Israel’s destruction of Gaza, and Huwaida lays out a plan for their next attempt to get aid past the siege.
Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Here’s What We Found Inside Harvard’s Antisemitism Report
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