Zohar Chamberlain Regev talking:
It’s a boat that, as you said, left Norway about a month ago, and we’ve just arrived in Amsterdam. We’re stopping in many ports on the way, as does the rest of the flotilla, the boats, coming from Sweden. And our plan is to make the voyage just as important as actually reaching Gaza. Of course, we go with a message of solidarity and hope, and we’re really humbled by the efforts of the Palestinians in Gaza to show the world that all they want is just to live a normal life, to be able to move about freely like most citizens of the world. And ours are just small efforts, but we try to amplify their voices through our action. So, our boats will sail. There will be two vessels sailing the Atlantic route, and two smaller vessels, sailing vessels, will be going the canal route of Europe. Then we will join together in the Mediterranean and continue to Gaza from there.
As an Israeli, I feel like I have a double obligation to participate in this, because it’s my own people who are inflicting this suffering on the Palestinians of Gaza. And what we try to convey is a message that we only try to protect human rights and make Israel comply with international law. We are not there to threaten or to provoke. We just think that it’s time the international community held Israel accountable for what it’s doing.
We have planned this mission for quite some time, actually since before the Women’s Boat to Gaza mission. We’ve said that in 2018 we will try to make a more visible mission. We knew, of course, that it was going to be the 70th anniversary of the Nakba. And we try, through our mission—it’s called Right to a Just Future for Palestine—we try to focus on both the youth in Gaza—there are many young people in Gaza, and, as we see, they are willing to actually risk their lives just to be visible. They say, “We would rather die by sniper shot and still, you know, do this in front of world’s eyes.” And, actually, their March of Return has made Gaza a news item right now. And we wanted to, you know, combine our efforts with that and to put the Gaza situation in the context of the occupation and dispossession of Palestinians from their native lands, that goes back 70 years and even more.
– the last six weeks of the nonviolent Palestinian protests have seen over 115 Palestinians killed, over 12,000 wounded.
I must say, my experience, I was injured in a car accident. And, of course, I was taken to a hospital straightaway, given, you know, the blood I needed. I was taken care of. And now, when I hear about Israeli snipers shooting people in the knee, with all sorts of strange ammunition that nobody recognizes, and that it’s just destroying their limbs, and then that Israeli authorities or Israeli court refuse to let them come through Israel to get treatment, and they—you know, they amputate them because they cannot take care of them in Gaza, I think this is heartbreaking. I think this is really, really terrible. And, of course, my experience is that, but, you know, it just gives me a glimpse into what that would be.
we just want to look at the Palestinians in Gaza as human beings, and what—it’s something very basic in Judaism: You should not do to others what you don’t want done to yourself. So I think this is just very, very basic. Comply with international law, respect human rights, and this will be the best guarantee for the security of the people in Israel, as well as Palestinians. I think it’s just commonsense.
We come from many different countries. We are Jews, Muslims, Christians, atheists. We have people from different nationalities. We try to keep the diversity. So, right now, coming into Amsterdam, there was a Palestinian on board, who’s actually media, two American citizens. We have crew that are Swedish and Norwegian. We have people from Malaysia. Myself, an Israeli, but living in Spain. So we have this language diversity on the boat, as well. And there will be many more people coming on and getting off at the different ports, because we just want to give this impression: We’re regular people. We just want to, you know, do our little bit to make this world a better place. And we believe that respecting human rights and stopping the violations of human rights of the Palestinian people in Gaza is what we need to do.
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Zohar Chamberlain Regev
an Israeli citizen on board the Freedom Flotilla ship Al Awda (The Return). She is also the owner of the Women’s Boat to Gaza Zaytouna-Oliva, which Israel seized in 2016.
— source democracynow.org