«We were dragged away, we didn't choose to return», «We were held hostage by the Israeli army», «There was aid on the boats, those videos are Israeli propaganda» .
The four Italian parliamentarians aboard the Flotilla, the first to be released yesterday by the Tel Aviv authorities, spoke. Today, 26 more Italian activists, including Sardinian Emanuela Pala , returned. Another 15 Italians remain in prison.
" We were dragged away, we had no choice, none of us had a conversation with anyone. We reject the speculation of these hours regarding our privileged return . What we experienced has annihilated our ability to react," explained PD MEP Annalisa Corrado at a press conference, reporting that "when anyone spoke to us, we had 40 armed people around us."
And regarding the accusations that there was no food aid on the boats, he states: "The videos were recorded when Israel seized our boats. Saying there was no aid is therefore just propaganda."
"We were brutally stopped, captured in international waters where we had every right to be," said Benedetta Scuderi, MEP for AVS . "We were held hostage by the Israeli army, taken to an Israeli port, subjected to searches, interrogations, and denied access to our lawyers. The boats were seized, the Palestinian flags were removed and replaced by Israeli ones ."
Marco Croatti, M5S senator : "We participated in the mission as activists. Now we must be a united front to bring home all the illegally detained people. I won't say what I saw with my own eyes until every last activist has returned. I didn't speak to any ministers during the entire mission. On board the flotilla, there were only boxes full of food. They threatened us as terrorists, but we only had humanitarian aid. And now the streets must respond to the absence of our governments."
Arturo Scotto, a Democratic Party MP , also calls for the release of all detainees: "We came very close to Gaza, 35 miles away, and that wasn't a given," he emphasizes. "Those miles that separated us couldn't be reached because the government didn't apply real pressure to reopen that humanitarian corridor, which had been closed for years . Those who were illegal are the ones who prevented those boats from reaching Gaza."
On the immediate release : "I believe it was a unilateral act by Israel, even without any discussions with the Foreign Ministry . We didn't receive a call from Meloni, but we did have a conversation with Minister Crosetto—I'm speaking for myself, Corrado, and Scuderi—even during the most difficult hours of the boarding. A continuous dialogue for which I thanked him. We spoke with Tajani yesterday, around 9:30 in the morning, when they informed us that we would be returning, on the phone of Deputy Ambassador Baldassarri, who didn't know we would be leaving a few hours later."
Scotto speaks of a " 24-hour blackout ; we didn't know where we were or what would happen to us." "We knew they wouldn't harm us, but we didn't know when we'd be released," he adds. " We know serious violations have been committed. Now our focus is on ensuring all the delegations return home."
(Unioneonline)