Who are the fifteen Catalans who traveled aboard the Flotilla?
Politicians and activists such as Ada Colau, Pilar Castillejos and Ariadna Masmitjà have been detained and held incommunicado by Israel.
BarcelonaOf the more than 500 activists from 44 countries that make up the Global Sumud Flotilla, intercepted by Israel as it approached GazaThere are up to fifty who have Spanish nationality. And of these, fifteen are Catalan. Most confirmed that they were traveling aboard ships attacked in international waters by Israeli soldiers and are currently detained incommunicado.
Among the most well-known names is that of the former mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, who posted a video on social media shortly after his ship was boarded: "If you're watching this, it means Israel has detained us illegally," he said.
The CUP deputy in the Parliament did the same. Pilar Castillejo, another of the flotilla's crew members, whose arrest sparked a protest in Parliament. Also traveling with her was a member of the CUP's national secretariat. Adrià Plazas.
Still within the political parties, the case of the ERC councillor in Barcelona also stands out. Jordi Coronas, with whom the Republicans also lost contact shortly before the attack on the boat she was traveling on.
The teacher and activist from Manlleu Ariadna Masmitjà She is another Catalan woman participating in the initiative to break the blockade of the Strip and has also been able to make her interception public. In videos and communications to the media just before the attack on her boat, she explained how the Israeli army vessels had approached them, surrounded them, and asked them to change course.
This browser does not support the video element.
"If they want to approach or intercept us, we will sit in a semi-roller, with our vests on and showing our hands to show that we do not have any weapons [...] Our protocol is to make peaceful resistance," he explained in an interview with 3CatInfo.
The activist, who shortly after made public a previously recorded video announcing his arrest, is a member of the Alternative Intersindical de Catalunya, an organization of which he is also a member. Eduard Lucas, another of the Catalan representatives of the Flotilla who have been arrested.
Other Catalan names include veteran CGT unionist and former bus driver Saturnino Mercader, as well as Francisco Rodríguez Martínez alias Curro, member of the Poble-sec Neighborhood Union, andSofia Peris, Arran activist.
On the other hand, from the Valencian Community, Compromís has denounced the "arbitrary detention" of its deputy in Les CortsJuan Bordera. "I'm recording this about to be intercepted by a military blockade of more than ten vessels [...] Israel will once again flout international law [...] and the governments have left us in the lurch," he announced in the video posted on social media to make his arrest public. The Podemos coordinator in the Balearic Islands and councilor in Palma, Lucia Muñoz, is another of the detained crew members.