Representatives of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition held a press meeting in the headquarters of IHH, in Istanbul. Bulent Yildirim, President of IHH, Dimitris Plinois, representative of Ship to Gaza Greece, Dror Feiler, Sweden representative of Free Gaza Movement, Greta Berlin, Free Gaza Movement representative and Khaled Turaani, European Campaign To End The Siege On Gaza representative were present at the press meeting.
Representatives stated that they will continue with the protests until Israel completely lifts the blockade.
Dimitris Plinois said “Even if Israel tries to alter the situation slightly, we will not step back. Together with IHH, we will continue to organize new activities. As the people of Greece, we will continue to act sensitive towards this issue.”
Dror Feiler, representative of Free Gaza Sweden, said “I am a Jew myself. I am also a former citizen of Israel. I served in the Israeli military in the past. I do not think helping Palestinian people is a matter of religion. This is a matter of humanity.” Feiler, showing a document to the press members, went on to say “During our previous attempt of sailing to Gaza, they took all our cameras, computers and video recorders and deleted all the recorded evidence. Here is the proof of that.”
Bulent Yildirim, President of IHH, said “The most important argument in our defense is the fact that we are open, we will not hide anything. However, Israel is hiding a lot of things.” Yildirim, stressing that Israel attacked the ships in international open waters, added “We did not kill any Israeli soldiers. We gave medical treatment to those we neutralized and returned them back to their colleagues. On the contrary, Israeli soldiers killed 9 of our friends. Israel was not able to manage this crisis well. Israel challenged the whole world. Now, some people are questioning us when they actually need to question Israel. I am calling out to those: Stop, taking Israel’s side. During the interrogation, Israelis asked me ‘what were you doing there?’. I replied, ‘we were looking for the humanity you have lost, there’.”
Legal action is ongoing
Yildirim also noted that they will continue to pursue all sorts of legal action against Israel. He went on to say: “Legal committees consisting of volunteering legal professionals have been formed in a number of countries to help those victims who were killed, wounded, permanently injured, imprisoned, tortured, robbed and assaulted, subjected to all kinds of human rights violations by this attack on the flotilla. Our coalition is following up on these legal procedures as well.”
