Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh,
Speaker 1: now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily oas it's Wednesday,
Speaker 2: the eleventh of June. I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 1: I'm beliefit.
Speaker 2: Simon's an AID ship sailing to Gaza was intercepted by
Speaker 2: Israel this week and its passengers, including Greta Tunberg, claimed
Speaker 2: they had been kidnapped. Israel said it was providing consular
Speaker 2: assistance to facilitate the deportation of the crew of what
Speaker 2: it called a selfie yacht to return to their home countries.
Speaker 2: In today's deep Dive, we are going to explain what's
Speaker 2: going on with this story and take you through the
Speaker 2: latest developments. It's dominated headlines, especially over a long weekend
Speaker 2: for the rest of us here at home, so we
Speaker 2: want to take you through it today.
Speaker 1: And like you said, this has dominated global headlines over
Speaker 1: the long weekend. It was absolutely everywhere on Monday when
Speaker 1: the crew members claimed that they had been kidnapped. It
Speaker 1: is a complex one. Let's start with the ship at
Speaker 1: the center of it all. What do we need to
Speaker 1: know about that?
Speaker 2: Yes, so we're talking about a ship called the Madeleine,
Speaker 2: which departed southern Italy on the first of June. It
Speaker 2: was carrying medical supplies and food bound for Gaza. Now,
Speaker 2: the ship is led by an organization called the Freedom
Speaker 2: Flotilla Coalition. It's an activist group that says it's campaigning
Speaker 2: for freedom of movement for all Palestinians and quote to
Speaker 2: end Israel's Gaza blockade, which it calls illegal.
Speaker 1: So they were carrying AID, right, Yeah, exactly, and that
Speaker 1: is in light of this blockade that you mentioned. What
Speaker 1: do we need to know about the blockade?
Speaker 2: Yes, So this all stems back to the ceasefire deal
Speaker 2: that you might remember was agreed between Hamas and Israel
Speaker 2: back in January. Now, that ceasefire was meant to have
Speaker 2: three phases, and the first phase end on the first
Speaker 2: of March. Now, negotiations for the remaining phases have been
Speaker 2: ongoing for months, but in the meantime, Israel had blocked
Speaker 2: AID from reaching Gaza. Now, this was in a move
Speaker 2: that's been condemned by UN agencies. International governments, including Australia
Speaker 2: and Israel, said the blockade was to pressure Hamas to
Speaker 2: release the remaining Israeli hostages who are still being held
Speaker 2: in Gaza. On the note of a delivery to Gaza.
Speaker 2: It defended the amount of aid flowing into Gaza in
Speaker 2: recent days. It's claimed that more than twelve hundred AID
Speaker 2: trucks have entered the strip from Israel within the past
Speaker 2: two weeks, and in addition to those deliveries, it said
Speaker 2: that close to eleven million meals have been issued directly
Speaker 2: to civilians through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation the GHF. Now
Speaker 2: that is a US and Israeli backed NGO.
Speaker 1: Okay, So this blockade started in March when the ceasefire ended.
Speaker 1: What has happened since then?
Speaker 2: So since then we've seen this global criticism of the
Speaker 2: blockade itself. The World Health Organization says the entire population
Speaker 2: of Gaza, two point one million people, is now facing
Speaker 2: prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in
Speaker 2: what the WHO call a quote catastrophic situation of hunger,
Speaker 2: acute maltrition, starvation, illness, and death. It says three quarters
Speaker 2: of Gaza's population are in emergency or catastrophic food deprivation,
Speaker 2: and the UN has labeled Israel's decision to block aid
Speaker 2: as a quote cruel collective punishment of Palestinians, and it
Speaker 2: says that AID should never be a bargaining.
Speaker 1: Chip okay, and what about the Freedom Flotilla Coalition the FFC,
Speaker 1: when did they get involved.
Speaker 2: So as this kind of at tension within the global
Speaker 2: community ramped up, as I mentioned, this flotilla announced it
Speaker 2: was preparing a vessel to sail to Gaza with AID
Speaker 2: on board, and the FFC said its ship, the Madeline,
Speaker 2: which was aimed in twenty fifteen after quote Gaza's only
Speaker 2: fisher woman at the time, a symbol of resistance and resilience.
Speaker 2: It's not the first vessel that's been sent by the FFC,
Speaker 2: or has been attempted to be sent by the FFC
Speaker 2: to Gaza. The group actually sent an AID ship called
Speaker 2: the Conscience in early May, which it said was attacked
Speaker 2: by Israeli drones in international waters off the coast of Malta.
Speaker 2: So the FFC called the bombing quote a deliberate act
Speaker 2: of aggression and intimidation. Four crew members were injured. It
Speaker 2: says the ship was set ablaze, communications were severed and
Speaker 2: the vessel was left adrift and taking on water. The
Speaker 2: group said the attack occurred in European waters, which was
Speaker 2: in violation of international law where the ship remains stranded.
Speaker 1: So this is another ship called Conscience that is completely
Speaker 1: separate to the one we're talking about today that has
Speaker 1: Credit Tumberg on it.
Speaker 2: Yep, but same organization, so same activist group, same sort
Speaker 2: of attempt to s ship aid into.
Speaker 1: Gaza, right, but that was also blocked.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was blocked and essentially destroyed.
Speaker 1: Got it, Okay? So then let's talk about the latest
Speaker 1: AID ship that it sent. The Madleene is what it's called.
Speaker 1: What do we know about its journey and who was
Speaker 1: on board? We know that Greta Tunberg was on board.
Speaker 2: Right exactly. So the next attempt by this group, since
Speaker 2: the Conscience ship was attacked, it says by Israeli drones,
Speaker 2: was this Madeleine journey to deliver aid to Gaza. It
Speaker 2: actually started making headlines well before it began its journey,
Speaker 2: and that's largely because of some of its high profile passengers.
Speaker 2: As you've mentioned, Billy all Up, there were twelve volunteers
Speaker 2: from multiple countries on the Madeleine. It set sail from
Speaker 2: Sicily on the first of June, so that included with
Speaker 2: climate justice activist Greta Tunberg, but there was also a
Speaker 2: high profile politician, a French Palestinian woman named Rema Hassan.
Speaker 2: She's actually a member of the European Parliament. So when
Speaker 2: Tunberg announced that she was going to be one of
Speaker 2: the twelve passengers sailing to Gaza on this ship, she
Speaker 2: said she felt compelled to join out of moral obligation
Speaker 2: to fight for a free Palestine. She added, quote, we
Speaker 2: are seeing a systematic starvation of two million people. The
Speaker 2: world cannot be silent bystanders, and so Greta Tunberg a
Speaker 2: very high profile voice in the climate activism space. Once
Speaker 2: she was on board, then the headlines kind of followed
Speaker 2: and people really started paying attention to this particular journey.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, maybe we should have explained
Speaker 1: this earlier, but for those I'm sure many people are
Speaker 1: familiar with Greta Tunberg. She rose to fame at a
Speaker 1: very early age for her activism, particularly in the environmental space,
Speaker 1: and now into adulthood, she has also continued that activism
Speaker 1: into other areas, including human rights. Exactly when we say
Speaker 1: that the ship was carrying aid cargo, what exactly does
Speaker 1: that mean?
Speaker 2: Yes, so the FFC said, specifically, the ship is carrying
Speaker 2: what it's called urgently needed supplies for the people in Gaza,
Speaker 2: and that includes a whole range of items from baby
Speaker 2: formula to flower rice, nappy's, women's sanitary products, water desalination kits,
Speaker 2: and a range of medical supplies ranging from crutches to prosthetics.
Speaker 2: I do think it is important to flag here that
Speaker 2: we're not talking about a huge cargo ship. If you've
Speaker 2: seen images of the boat, it's a pretty small sail ship.
Speaker 2: The amount of aid it was carrying, though, has been
Speaker 2: described as symbolic by the group, So it's not suggesting
Speaker 2: that the supplies it has on board will be sufficient
Speaker 2: to reach those in needing Gaza. But it's about, they say,
Speaker 2: drawing attention to this humanitarian crisis in Gaza, protesting the
Speaker 2: Israeli blockade. So the ship is as much of a
Speaker 2: protest as it is an aid delivery, I suppose.
Speaker 1: And we're going to keep talking about this, but first
Speaker 1: here is a quick message from ours consor. We know
Speaker 1: that it never reached its destination. Though what happened It
Speaker 1: was on Monday Australia time.
Speaker 2: Yes, so on Sunday local time we heard from Israeli
Speaker 2: Foreign Minister Israel Katz. He said that he had instructed
Speaker 2: the Israeli Defense Forces the IDF to quote take whatever
Speaker 2: measures are necessary to stop what he called a hate
Speaker 2: flotilla from reaching Gaza, then the flotilla itself. So those
Speaker 2: on board the passengers shared a series of posts to
Speaker 2: social media. They said that drones were spotted flying over
Speaker 2: the Madeleine as it approached Gaza, and footage shared from
Speaker 2: the ship shows a white substance being sprayed on its windows.
Speaker 2: There's videos of the passengers on board the ship throwing
Speaker 2: their phones overboard, and we can see the IDF boarding
Speaker 2: the vessel, and the FFC has since posted a series
Speaker 2: of pre recorded videos from its passengers. Now there's a
Speaker 2: range of these videos, but they call on viewers to
Speaker 2: pressure their governments to pressure foreign ministries in countries like Spain, France,
Speaker 2: Brazil home countries to some of these passengers to keep
Speaker 2: those on board safe. Had also among those videos a
Speaker 2: statement from Greta Tunberg. She posted a video urging the
Speaker 2: Swedish government she is Swedish, to call for her release.
Speaker 2: Here's a little bit of what was said in that video.
Speaker 1: If you see this video, we have been intercepted and
Speaker 1: kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or
Speaker 1: forces that support Israel, and so her account posted that.
Speaker 1: But we know that she herself didn't post that. It
Speaker 1: would have been someone with access to her social media.
Speaker 2: Yes, so these were pre recorded statements, I suppose, you know,
Speaker 2: knowing the danger of what they were getting involved in,
Speaker 2: the crew kind of preempted a need to have some
Speaker 2: kind of a statement ready to go. But the organization
Speaker 2: the flotilla itself said that the ship was quote attacked
Speaker 2: slash forcibly intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters.
Speaker 2: It said the ship was unlawfully boarded and its unarmed
Speaker 2: civilian crew was abducted, while the life saving cargo was confiscated.
Speaker 1: Israel immediately put out photos and videos of what had
Speaker 1: happened on this ship. How did they respond to these
Speaker 1: claims that they had kidnapped these crew members.
Speaker 2: Yes, so we have heard a lot from both sides
Speaker 2: involved in this incident. It was Monday morning for us
Speaker 2: here in Australia when we got this statement from Israel's
Speaker 2: Foreign Ministry. When that came through, it said, quote the
Speaker 2: selfie yacht of the celebrities was safely making its way
Speaker 2: to the shores of Israel. It said the passengers were
Speaker 2: expected to return to their home countries. This was a
Speaker 2: really strongly worded statement kind of condemning the action of
Speaker 2: the crew and its goal. It called the videos an
Speaker 2: attempted publicity stunt over less than a single truckload of
Speaker 2: aid and said there are ways to deliver aid to
Speaker 2: the Gaza strip they do not involve Instagram selfies. And
Speaker 2: Israel also posted a video showing the passengers on a
Speaker 2: small boat being given sandwiches and water, and there was
Speaker 2: a photo of Tunberg in that kind of release of comments.
Speaker 1: Can you just really quickly explain so earlier we mentioned
Speaker 1: that there was this blockade, but Israel is saying that
Speaker 1: there has been some aid that has been delivered to Gaza.
Speaker 2: Yes, So this has been kind of a huge point
Speaker 2: of contention in the global community, and we talked about
Speaker 2: it on the podcast a couple of weeks ago. So,
Speaker 2: the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that I mentioned, they are backed
Speaker 2: by Israel, backed by US, and the idea is that
Speaker 2: they should be from Israel's perspective, responsible for the distribution
Speaker 2: of aid in Gaza, a centralized organization to be responsible
Speaker 2: for handing out aid from for kind of centralized aid agencies. Now,
Speaker 2: the criticism has been that those aid centers are not
Speaker 2: necessarily conveniently located for the two million people of Gaza,
Speaker 2: that there is a lot of starvation, that there are
Speaker 2: people who are nursing serious injuries without medical care, and
Speaker 2: that they will not physically be able to get to
Speaker 2: those aid centers. There are concerns about the fact that
Speaker 2: these centers are manned by a military presence, that there's
Speaker 2: facial recognition technology. That's some of the allegations, that there
Speaker 2: are privacy concerns. So that's its own kind of set
Speaker 2: of issues and seat of kind of conversation mounting on
Speaker 2: the other side of this. But Israel and the United States,
Speaker 2: it's closest to ally have defended that organization as distributing
Speaker 2: adequate aid in the region.
Speaker 1: At the moment, what do we know about these twelve
Speaker 1: crew members. Since the IDF intercepted the ship.
Speaker 2: So late on Monday night local time, Israeli authorities said
Speaker 2: that the boat it continued to call it the selfie yacht,
Speaker 2: had docked at Ashdod Port. Now, that's a main cargo
Speaker 2: port near the city of Tel Aviv, about forty kilometers
Speaker 2: south of Tel Aviv, and Israel said the passengers were
Speaker 2: undergoing medical exams to ensure they were in good health.
Speaker 2: So that was that update, and then about six hours
Speaker 2: later we got another update confirming that the passengers had
Speaker 2: all been taken to the International airport in Tel Aviv. There,
Speaker 2: Israel's Foreign Ministry says they were met by diplomatic representatives
Speaker 2: each from their home countries, and the Foreign Ministry said
Speaker 2: that some passengers were pretty much expected to leave within hours. However,
Speaker 2: it noted that anyone who refused to sign deportation documents,
Speaker 2: so anyone who refused to leave Israel voluntarily, would be
Speaker 2: brought before a judicial authority in accordance with Israeli law
Speaker 2: to authorize their deportation. So essentially they would launch legal
Speaker 2: proceedings to forcibly remove these people from Israel. Now, the
Speaker 2: Defense Minister of Israel, Israel Katz, congratulated the IDF for
Speaker 2: what he called quote the quick and safe takeover of
Speaker 2: the Madeleine flotilla to prevent them from breaking the blockade
Speaker 2: and reaching the shores of Gaza. He also wrote in
Speaker 2: a post to x that it was important to show
Speaker 2: Greta Tunberg and the other passengers quote exactly who the
Speaker 2: Hamas terrorist organization they came to support, is, saying he
Speaker 2: had instructed the IDF to show the flotilla passengers quote
Speaker 2: the video of the horrors of the October seven massacre
Speaker 2: when they arrived at the port of Ashdod.
Speaker 1: And have we heard from anyone on the flotilla about
Speaker 1: these updates?
Speaker 2: So we haven't heard from the passengers themselves yet at
Speaker 2: the time of recording, but we have received kind of
Speaker 2: rolling updates from the FFC as they have kind of emerged.
Speaker 2: So when we get responses from Israel, we've typically also
Speaker 2: heard from the FFC. They've both been pretty active in
Speaker 2: their communication about this incident and the movement of the passengers.
Speaker 2: The FFC said the passengers are expected to be moved
Speaker 2: to a detention facility unless they agree to leave immediately,
Speaker 2: so that lines up with what we heard from the
Speaker 2: Foreign Ministry in Israel. FFC lawyers said, though, quote, we're
Speaker 2: talking about people who were sailing in international orders and
Speaker 2: then Israel basically captured them and abducted them into Israel.
Speaker 2: We continue to demand the immediate release of all volunteers
Speaker 2: and the return of the stole and aid their detention
Speaker 2: is unlawful and a violation of international law. So the
Speaker 2: group is continuing claims that the actions of the IDF
Speaker 2: and of the Israeli government are unlawful, and I'm sure
Speaker 2: we will hear more on that in the coming weeks.
Speaker 1: As wev said, this is an international story, particularly because
Speaker 1: many of the crew members are from all sorts of
Speaker 1: different countries. What has the response from the international community, bin.
Speaker 2: Yes, so there are a range of countries involved. As
Speaker 2: you mentioned, Billy, half of the crew though are French citizens,
Speaker 2: and that includes the eu MP who we mentioned earlier
Speaker 2: in the episode, and authorities in France say that they
Speaker 2: did warn the passengers on board the flotilla of the
Speaker 2: risks that they were exposing themselves to The French Foreign
Speaker 2: Minister has also said since this incident that he's been
Speaker 2: assured by Israel that the crew would receive consular assistance
Speaker 2: when they arrived in Tel Aviv. Sweden, where Greta Tunberg
Speaker 2: is from, said it's monitoring the situation closely. In terms
Speaker 2: of response from the United Nations. Before the trip, the
Speaker 2: UN actually said that it was seriously concerned for the
Speaker 2: passenger's safety. It said as the Freedom Flotilla coalition's ship
Speaker 2: approaches its destination, Israel must adhere to international law and
Speaker 2: comply with orders from the International Court of Justice to
Speaker 2: ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian aid, so making its position
Speaker 2: on the plight of the flotilla pretty clear there. Now,
Speaker 2: since the ship was intercepted, we have heard from Francesca Albanesi.
Speaker 2: She works for UNRA, which is the UN agency that
Speaker 2: works with Palestine and Palestinian refugees. She has urged other
Speaker 2: boats to challenge Israel's Gaza blockade, so she's essentially calling
Speaker 2: on more boats to do what the Madeleine was attempting
Speaker 2: to do. In a post to X, she said Madeleine's
Speaker 2: journey may have ended, but the mission isn't over. Every
Speaker 2: Mediterranean port must send boats with aid and solidarity to Gaza. Now,
Speaker 2: at the time of recording, we are awaiting news on
Speaker 2: the movements of all twelve passengers, but we do know
Speaker 2: that Greta Tunberg has departed Israel. Photos emerged on Tuesday
Speaker 2: evening posted by Israel's Foreign Ministry on X saying that
Speaker 2: she had just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden
Speaker 2: via France. Reports say she was placed on the flights
Speaker 2: after signing deportation papers and was traveling on her own
Speaker 2: without an escort. But we will continue to bring you
Speaker 2: updates as this story on folds.
Speaker 1: Yes, we'll definitely be keeping an eye and like you said,
Speaker 1: we will bring any updates to the podcast in our
Speaker 1: headlines podcasts in the afternoons. M thank you so much
Speaker 1: for walking us through that. Thank you, and thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening to this episode of The Daily Oz.
Speaker 1: We'll be back again this afternoon with your evening headlines,
Speaker 1: but until then, have a great day. My name is
Speaker 1: Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Calcottin woman
Speaker 1: from Gadigal Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast
Speaker 1: is recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people and
Speaker 1: pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations.
Speaker 1: We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
Speaker 1: both past and present.