Much has been made of the latest humanitarian flotilla setting sail for Gaza, to ‘break the siege’ and take much-needed food and other supplies to ‘imprisoned’ Palestinians.  Three Portuguese are on board – one of them being the (only) MP for Bloco de Esquerda, Mariana Mortágua. But almost as soon as the boats set out yesterday, they had to turn around and head back, due to “adverse weather conditions”.

Activist Miguel Duarte has assured SIC Notícias that the plan is to resume the mission ASAP. Storms that the flotilla would have been riding into are already dispersing, and hopes are that the ‘coast will be much clearer’ very soon, he said.

“We are optimistic that this time we will in fact reach Gaza”, he told the news channel. “This is a flotilla without precedents. There are dozens of boats; delegations from more than 40 countries. There really has never been such a large flotilla, carrying so much humanitarian aid, nor so many people to give it, so we are confident that this will be different”, he said – meaning participants feel it will be much more difficult for Israel’s military to forbid entry this time, or to ‘arrest and deport’ all those involved.

Duarte also spoke of his disappointment over the statements by foreign minister Paulo Rangel, who said that the government does not have to guarantee the safety of the flotilla just because it has three Portuguese citizens on board, one of which is a member of parliament.

It was a stance “more or less consistent with the Portuguese State’s line of action in recent years regarding the violence we see in Gaza(…) It is obvious that the Portuguese State has a moral as well as a legal obligation to protect us in the same way that it has to provide support to all Portuguese citizens abroad. Furthermore, it has a moral obligation to defend and protect, to the best of its ability, the Palestinian people from the genocide they are obviously suffering,” he said, accusing the Portuguese state of ‘being complicit’ and “benefiting” from the war in Gaza.

“We have absolutely shameful agreements between the Portuguese armed forces and Israeli arms companies, whose weapons are causing this genocide. Therefore, in truth, the moral obligation of the Portuguese state was not only to protect us and this humanitarian aid, but also not to contribute to this genocide.”

“At this moment, unfortunately, our state and our government are accomplices to this genocide, and ending it yesterday would already be too late,” he said.