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INITIATIVE FOR PALESTINE
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Adur Ramírez de Alda, member of the Global Summud fleet: "The idea is to leave for Turkey after the storm."

After Israel has halted the journey, four Basques are currently on the island of Crete, Greece, and in the next few hours they will decide whether to continue in the fleet or return to the Basque Country to mobilise.

Flotillakoak Kretan
Fleet members in Crete on Friday afternoon. Image taken from an agency video.

On Thursday morning , Israel boardedthe ships of the Global Summud Flotilla with 175 activists on board and 36 people ended up in hospital after boarding. All but two were released on Friday, the Brazilian Thiago Avila and the Spanish-Palestinian Saif Abukesh.

Some of the activists have returned home to continue their mobilizations, including the two Basques who arrived in Loiu last night, and the others are still in Greece, on the island of Crete, to decide what steps to take.

In an interview with Euskadi Irratia, Ramírez de Alda has reported that they left their ship "without boarding, but without arresting anyone, drifting." In Crete they will have the opportunity to meet the other ships and when the storm passes, the fleet plans to head towards Turkey .

"The next step is to continue along the coast, without going too far into the sea, to reach the coast of Turkey. Today we learned that there is an Israeli vessel on the same border, on that international water border, to hinder it," Ramírez de Alda said.

"We have more than 10 ships waiting in Turkey and the intention is that they too should participate in the Flotilla and approach Palestine together," he explained.

The four members of the Basque delegation do not yet have the decision as to whether or not they will all go to Turkey: "Today we have the meeting of the Basque delegation to decide who will follow or not. It is not yet clear what role each of them will play. It is important to remain in the fleet but also to articulate the mobilisation in the street and to put political force and pressure on us to decide what steps to take in relation to our delegation," he said.

Indeed, in Ramírez de Alda's view, it is essential to continue to influence society: "In recent years we have been witnessing a direct genocide that has led to mobilisation in the streets, to the articulation of people's awareness of how it has gone, but it is not enough. Because the states do not propose a real rupture, they do not seriously raise the distance with Israel, without which there is nothing to do. The important thing is to break all relations with Israel and not to give oxygen, otherwise it will continue with the genocide and the dynamic violence that has existed so far."

It calls on the Basque people to "remain vigilant in their eyes towards Palestine" and to continue to "support the Global Summud Fleet". 

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