The Mallorcan activists who embarked on August 31 on the Global Sumud Flotilla are already home. Lucía Muñoz, Alejandra Martínez and Reyes Rigo landed at Palma airport around 1:30 p.m. Despite the downpour that fell on the Balearic capital, fifty people, who responded to a call launched by various civil platforms, received them in Son Sant Joan.
In front of the arrivals gate of the terminal they have displayed banners calling for “the end of the genocide” and wore t-shirts with a watermelon printed on the chest, the fruit that symbolizes the resistance of Muslims living in the Holy Land for a double reason: it is part of the daily diet of a people in Gaza who have had to face the famine caused by the siege and, in addition, it contains the colors of the flag. palestine. Black, white and green flags, with a reddish triangle on the far left, have also been waved in the hall of the terminal.
“This morning Reyes called me and I listened to her with a very emotional voice. She was happy and she already told me about the (general) strike on the 15th, that we must continue the fight. (…) These days false news has appeared in some media that has caused us anguish. Until we learned that Reyes was outside of Israel, because they had told us that the sentence was a very fragile thing, we have not been completely calm,” commented Xisca Puig, a member of the Global Movement to Gaza Mallorca, minutes before the activists appeared.
“Now there is a lot of joy here, but also a lot of gratitude for the example of these women who have contributed to strengthening a global movement: they have shown a sign of commitment to Humanity. We must not stop fighting so that the Palestinian people can escape from this situation and the genocide can truly stop,” said Stefan Armborst, member of Mallorca per Palestine.
Arrival in Madrid
After a week of anguish, the hug between Muñoz and Martínez with their partner occurred hours before in Barajas. This morning, Dolores Rigo arrived in Madrid and, there, her father and other relatives were also waiting for her. Thus has ended the odyssey of the last Spanish crew member of the flotilla that set sail for the Gaza Strip loaded with humanitarian aid. Rigo had been detained by the Netanyahu Administration since October 1. This weekend, the State of Israel deported her, via Jordan, to Qatar.
“It was worth it. We are going to return. We have to denounce the genocidal Israeli State that has kidnapped us in international waters, has taken us to a prison for prisoners, well, for terrorists,” Rigo declared before the media that had gathered at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport.
The activist has urged the Government to file a complaint with international justice and complain about “this kidnapping and imprisonment”, while celebrating the work of some flotillas that “have somehow shaken the world” and that, in her words, will try to reach Gaza until “Palestine is free.” Rigo has also called on workers to attend the general strike called on October 15 in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The demonstration called at the state level on Sunday, October 5, brought about 4,000 people to the streets in Palma.
The long road back home
From Doha airport, Reyes Rigo took a commercial Iberia flight along with five other Spanish activists, members of the Freedom Flotilla, the second contingent that intended to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gazans, a population trapped between the Mediterranean and the bombs of the Israeli Army in a siege that has killed at least 67,000 people and injured another 170,000 in two years. Her colleagues have been held for a week, but she has spent twelve days under arrest. The operation has been coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Embassy in Tel-Aviv, which has achieved the return of 57 Spanish citizens.
Muñoz – councilor of Unides Podem in the Palma City Council – and Martínez – jurist and communicator – returned to Spain on October 6, via Athens, with another twenty activists after having spent several days in the Saharonim prison, a macro-prison located at the entrance to the Sinai Peninsula, right on the border with Egypt.
Since October 1, when the Israeli Navy intercepted the March just 70 nautical miles from the Gaza Strip (Muñoz and Martínez were sailing on another boat, the Consider), Rigo has been held in two prisons in the State of Israel. To get her released, the Mallorcan woman had to reach an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office, accept a sentence of ten days in prison – already served – and pay a fine – 2,650 euros – to reduce the charges against her. It happened on Friday, when Rigo pleaded guilty to the crime of “aggravated assault” and having caused damage to an official at the Ktzi'ot prison, attached to Saharonim, and the largest in the State of Israel (400,000 square meters distributed in twenty-eight modules).
Guilty to reduce charges
In front of the court, according to the Israeli press, this resident of Palma, an acupuncture professional – she has a business in the Son Espanyolet neighborhood – and collaborator with different NGOs, said: “They hit us, they pushed us and on the fifth day they attacked my friend and I tried to protect her. (…) They grabbed me by the head and my glasses fell off.” She also added that they had her crammed together with thirteen other women in a cell with capacity for five inmates, without water and receiving “rotten” food.
The charges initially filed against her accused her of biting a guard on the hand and refusing to enter her cell. After the agreement, the accusation was rectified. The Court of Ber Sheeva (a city located about twenty kilometers from the Gaza border, on the edge of the Negev desert) accepted Rigo's allegations: instead of giving a bite, he pleaded guilty to having dug his nails into the official as a resistance mechanism.