Sol de Medianoche Speaks with a Crew Member of the Solidarity Flotilla to Gaza
by carlos matías
“We know that Israeli soldiers are not going to let us reach Gaza. But our journey and that of the rest of the solidarity flotillas are stirring everyone’s conscience,” José Lozano Maneiro, a Spaniard who has been to Alaska (where he wants to return “when all this is over”), tells Sol de Medianoche aboard the ship Conscience.
Almost 400 activists of 49 different nationalities (Greta Thunberg and Mandla Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, among them, and many Latin Americans) tried to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza in 44 ships, which sailed between August and September from Italy (Otranto, Genoa, and Catania), Spain (Barcelona), Greece (Syros), and Tunisia.
It was the Global Sumud Flotilla, which Israel intercepted in international waters on October 1 and 2. Demonstrations in support of a free Palestine and against genocide multiplied in Latin America and Europe. The news went around the world. However, other solidarity flotillas, one Turkish and one European, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, led by the Conscience, continue to sail the Mediterranean to Gaza at the time of closing this edition.
The Conscience has been doing so regularly for 15 years, systematically suffering Israeli attacks at every attempt. In 2010, on its first crossing to Palestine, Israeli soldiers attacked the boat in Crete, shooting dead ten of its sailors. Last May (the last attempt, excluding the current one), the Conscience was attacked by drones in Turkey, and the repairs of the damage caused have lasted four months.
The European flotilla of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, although European, comprises 92 people (health workers, journalists, and activists) on nine ships. Conscience is the largest. On board are citizens from various countries, including Latino, American, Canadian, New Zealand, Australian, French, Italian, Spanish, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Israeli backgrounds. Yes, yes: Israelis.
One of them is the Spaniard José Lozano Maneiro, one of the few war correspondents in the world who survived the Israeli attacks of the Lebanon War in 1982 and who personally saw the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, escape the siege of Beirut and flee to Greece. and then to Tunis, where he established new headquarters. José Lozano toured Alaska a little over 15 years ago. He visited Juneau, Kodiak, Fairbanks, and passed into Canada through the Yukon Territory, where he slept in the same cabin in Dawson City, where Jack London wrote his famous novels about the Gold Rush in Alaska and Yukon.
“I want to go back to Alaska when all this is over,” José Lozano tells Sol de Medianoche from the Conscience. “We are now preparing daily for the foreseeable boarding by Israeli forces, which will almost certainly take place. We know that they are not going to let us get to Gaza. But our journey and that of the rest of the solidarity flotillas are stirring everyone’s conscience.”
Sol de Medianoche will remain in daily contact with the flotilla as the Israeli army and Mossad do not interfere with communications.
