“Get on the ground, quickly, get on the ground. Terrorist, on the ground, terrorist…” The screams continue while the crew of the boat receive blows and are aimed at the head with fake cardboard rifles.
About 30 sympathizers of the Palestinian cause who in the next few hours will embark on the Freedom Flotilla, which intends to take a ship loaded with food to Gaza, receive brief training in the basement of a hotel in Istanbul to try to reproduce some of the situations of tension and violence that activists will likely face if the ship finally receives Turkish approval to set sail for the Strip. The initiative of dozens of humanitarian organizations around the world in solidarity with Gaza aims to break the maritime blockade imposed by Israel by bringing more than 5,500 tons of food to the Strip. About 500 people of 40 nationalities participate in the trip.
The six-hour training is taught by Lisa Fithian, an American expert who has given this course hundreds of times, training groups around the world in “peaceful resistance,” including environmental groups and migrant groups. This Tuesday, a doctor, a teacher, a taxi driver, an engineer and a housewife who have never faced the police before receive a theoretical and practical varnish about what awaits them when, as expected, the army falls on them Israeli.
The course begins with a brief review of the weapons that will presumably be used in a boarding of the three ships of the flotilla: long weapons, tear gas, Taser guns, stun grenades (light and sound so powerful that it paralyzes), dogs, drones, and the situations they will face.
“In case there is an Israeli landing, it is best to squat with your hands up. But if you have to fall to the ground, it is better to fall on the right side to protect the liver from kicks and blows.” Fithian insists again and again that the crew avoid any visual contact with the soldiers. “Don’t look at their faces or try to talk to them.” And she recommends: “It is better to remove any earrings in your ears or nose because they can pull on them and try to rip them off,” she says, looking at a Podemos deputy who is holding her hand in horror at the piece of metal that she has on her nose.
Those attending the course, activists from Brazil, Malaysia, Jordan or Tunisia, more accustomed to praying and demonstrating than to fighting with one of the most powerful armies in the world, follow the instructions with a serious look. “When being handcuffed, it is advisable to close your fists because later, when you tighten the handcuffs, your hands gain a little space that facilitates circulation,” he says, showing his fists together. “It is best to carry a fanny pack so that soldiers can easily find the documentation with their hands cuffed behind them,” he adds. And he goes on to explain: “It is unlikely that they will use gas because soldiers move poorly in that environment, even with masks, but if that were the case, it is good to carry an onion,” he recommends. “In operations of this type the ratio is usually two soldiers for each crew member,” insists the woman who teaches the course. “In other words, if we are 800 people, about 1,600 soldiers will come. Forget about using cell phones and get rid of anything in your hands that might look like a weapon: a cell phone, a cane, an umbrella, a backpack… everything,” she insists.
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“In case there are impacts, cover your face, enough to protect your eyes, but not so much that they think you want to hide,” insists the monitor, trying to reproduce an assault operation that some members of the flotilla have carried out. experienced on previous occasions and which Israel is preparing to repeat if ships dare to approach its coasts. “It is likely that before the assault drones will fly over that can identify the faces of the passengers and also have the capacity to shoot,” she warns in English and Arabic during the course.
On Monday, Israeli television Channel 12, citing the military, reported that Shayetet 13, the Israeli army’s elite unit, has stepped up its training to board the flotilla’s ships. Shayetet 13 is the unit that recently entered Al Shifa hospital and killed 400 people, according to Gazan authorities. It is also the military division that in 2010 attacked a similar flotilla, that of the ship Mavi Marmara, and killed 10 crew members in international waters and injured 50. “This is a peaceful resistance movement, but don’t take this to the extreme. Don’t hold each other tightly because they will hit you harder,” explains Lisa Fithian in English. “As much as you can, stay in groups,” she insists. The news about the preparations for Shayetet 13 worries a group that dreams of being able to leave the burden in Gaza and not receive many blows in the event of a military assault.
Tension and anxiety
Before finishing the first part of the course, the most tense moment arrives. The lights go out and suddenly a group of hooded men enter shouting, hitting and pointing. The activists are kicked, a cardboard weapon is placed on their heads, they try to drag them to separate them from the rest and two actresses reproduce the screams that will be heard in a moment, thus adding drama to the scene. They put so much effort into reproducing the violent landing on the ship that when the rehearsal ends, a strange feeling of tension and anxiety floats in the basement of the hotel. Some are short of breath, others remain in shockand others perceive for the first time what they are exposed to.
“We want people to be scared and to be able to anticipate what is coming, even if it is very scary because that allows us to know what is coming,” Fithian explains to Morning Express. “The sound of explosions can be terrifying and you can panic, but training and information is power. We train to prepare for the violence that we are going to encounter,” he adds.
The last hour of the course is focused on explaining the legal consequences to which all “terrorists” are exposed, as Israel describes the Turkish organization IHH, which organizes the flotilla, and its participants. “The first consequence is the ban on returning to Israel for the next ten years. In addition to that, do not say anything without consular assistance and even less sign anything that is not in your language,” Fithian repeats over and over again.
The flotilla, with 5,500 kilos of food, is made up of a freighter and two passenger boats with more than 500 people, among them, the veteran American activist Ann Wright, the former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau, the number two of Sumar for the Europeans, Jaume Asens, the general secretary of Podemos Andalucía, Martina Velarde, and a grandson of Nelson Mandela. The departure of the ships was initially scheduled for Monday, however, international pressures postponed the appointment until this Friday. This is the eighth flotilla to leave for Gaza since 2010. That year, Israel attacked the passenger ship Mavi Marmarain which around 750 people were traveling with 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid.
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