Meri Calvelli in the foreground on one of the boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla
He started from Crete and is sailing to Gaza Meri Calvelli Historical activist and humanitarian operator of the Gaza Strip with the NGO ACS (Association of Cooperation and Solidarity) when we reach it on the phone “with the moved sea and the strong strong wind. We do not have a sailing boat, but with a motor and we can travel. We have passed Greece and we are on the route to Gaza. Further on, compared to us, there is the first part of the Summud Flotilla that had already started. The boats are added gradually, a little at a time, and then rejoin all together towards the coast of Gaza ».
A reunification that takes place slowly in an operation that is not a very easy mission.
“It happens of everything, also that the boats break, in addition to the attack that there was Israel with drones before a part of the Sumud Flotilla reached Greece. Attack that broke and deteriorated some boats, including the flagship ship, which had to stop to be repaired. The journey is very long, the sea is not navigable, especially this season, the boats are neither military fleets nor large yachts of shipowners, but they are often remedied boats to be able to put together a fleet of solidarity in some way even symbolic, as has been said from the beginning “.
What is the goal?
«Paying attention to the situation of Gaza, breaking this siege and – although not a mercantile – bringing that little of humanitarian aid that from a symbolic point of view mean highlighting what the Gaza strip has been experiencing for two years. Breaking the naval block that Israel has always made and has always implemented. Forever. From what I remember only a Flotilla ship back in 2008 he managed to reach the coasts of Gaza. That was the first and the only one. Even then there was a big siege, Gaza had been closed for months and months and months, so no one could enter, nobody could go out, nobody could bring humanitarian aid, which are always the fundamental thing “.
What news do you have from there?
«What our operators tell us: people are completely exhausted. All that little arrives must be purchased on the black market. The only way they have to be able to eat something is through the Gaza Foundationwhich in theory should distribute food inside the strip. In reality, it was an operation that has contributed only to eliminating international organizations that had been dealing to distribute humanitarian aid within the strip. In Gaza there have always been refugees who needed to be helped ».
How many years has you had contacts with Gaza?
«I have been present personally in the Gaza Strip for over twenty years with one of the non -governmental organizations, the ACS, the Cooperation and Solidarity Association. We had emergency projects, above all because, I repeat, in fact, the situation inside the Gaza strip does not begin on October 7, 2023. There has always been the need, at least for what I have seen, to be able to respond to emergencies, which have always been those of attacks, closures, bombings, impossibility of movement for the population “.
Never like today though.
«These last two years have given what we call the final solution for Gaza that they had had for a long time. If before this situation we saw it in pieces on Gaza, of the area in the area, now it is completely extended, almost the whole strip is now completely destroyed, even the health structures, the houses are crumbled and have no longer the possibility of re -emerging immediately. If before the small bombarded pieces were able to be reconstructed in a timely manner, now the casomai reconstruction will be very long, a solution for the strip should be found “.
At this moment she is out of the Gaza strip. Have they forced you to go out?
“Everyone. The NGOs, but also the United Nations, have been removed. We are the part that Israel absolutely does not want to act inside. We tried to return in some way, it was impossible. He succeeds – in rotation – the medical staff of Emergency And Doctors without borders albeit with great difficulty. They are the same doctors of Emergency – who also work with our staff – who tell us what is happening. We manage to send the funds to our local staff who then, in turn, distributes them to be able to buy water, because everything is paid, as I said, to the black market. NGOs are acting in this way. Everyone is vulnerable, everyone needs everything, now there is no longer any distinction ».
What prompted it to leave?
«Not being able to be among my people and try to stop one of the greatest injustices they are committing towards the civilian population. I believe it is absolutely important to be here and we are also seeing it from the world mobilization, from the interest and involvement now not only the usual “Pro Palestine”. But of the whole world of civil society, of all those who somehow believe that international law must be respected. Injustice cannot absolutely be the answer to what is happening. All consciences are waking up, we hope they convince a stop of this situation, because you can’t go on like this ».
These are two years of massacres of the civilian population.
«We only read them in the history books and fifty years later. We have been witnessing a genocide in the sunlight for two years, live day after day. We look at it, we live it, perceive it, we hear it: each of us has contacts to know what happens there. I believe that even the most ignorant, the bad guy must realize that one cannot continue like this ».
In Berlin on Sunday there were 100 thousand on the street. What did Mattarella’s intervention arouse?
«He understood what is happening and in his heart he cannot accept it. A chance to diplomacy must be given. We still believe that it should be used to lower weapons and stop violence. To avoid the abyss of a third world war that we are already living in pieces ».
65 years in February. Isn’t it afraid?
«I lived for years there and I have undergone various attacks as well as the entire population of Gaza. There is always fear, but you have to challenge it or we are all submissive. I immerse myself in the Palestinians who cannot even try to return despite the desire to do it. In short, in short, someone has to do it for them too. That’s what they ask us. I know very well that the Israelis are not delicate, that they hurt. For this reason we invoke the attention of all civil society, but above all of governments that can protect to the maximum and stop this unheard of senseless violence ».
What is more anger?
«That they could have stopped everything even before October 7 if there had been the will to do it. Palestine, on the other hand, is considered a strategic strip for the powers between the East and the West. It has such a strategic position that they never really wanted to block the conflict. It is no coincidence that there were Israel, they armed her. This was the project, done, carried out and supported by America, by the USA and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, militarism and economic and strategic interests are winning. On their skin and is absurd when more than three quarters of the population, however, asks peace and justice ».
