Palestine Mission Incomplete: On El Salto’s coverage of the flotilla heading towards Gaza-El Salto
On Sunday the 21st we wrote a letter to the community of El Salto informing them that we had taken editorial decision Heading to Istanbul with the hope of sailing on the International Freedom Flotilla, which has tried to break the maritime blockade of Palestine for 16 years. From that moment until the following Sunday, El Salto’s two journalists worked in Turkey, covering seven days of negotiations, impulses and setbacks during the voyage, which, as events turned out, Represents a challenge and political act of defiance. To Israel.
As we informed you on Saturday, April 27, the latest pressure maneuvers led the flotilla to announce that the mission had been postponed. At that moment, all we had to do was end our coverage and, in my case, return home. Photographer Edu Leon, who was going to cover the voyage with me, would stay for a few more days to prepare a report on Syrian refugees in Turkey.
We have always defended, and we will continue to do so, that journalists are not news and that, in fact, there are issues about the production of these topics that are not (and sometimes should not be) worth telling. Not because they are dangerous or secret, but because, like any profession, this work suffers from downtime, confusion or, simply, a trick that does not interest the audience. However, in this case, we would like to give a small clarification to our community and especially to those who allow a medium like ours with their subscription, which is a rare bird in the political and social context in which we live. Live, move forward.
Since the beginning of the Israeli destruction campaign, what is happening in Gaza has shaken the way we live in the world and understand journalism. This was the reason for getting on the ship
We have already explained the motivations for this coverage, which is unusual for a project that has a low budget and does not include other international conflicts such as the war in Ukraine or other significant events with people employed by the editorial staff. We said a week ago that since the beginning of the Israeli destruction campaign on October 7, 2023, we know that what is happening in Gaza changes the way we live in the world and understand journalism. This was the reason we set out with the Freedom Flotilla on a mission in which we took some risks.
Because what we have experienced this week is the unpreparedness of activists, politicians and journalists for possible scenarios that the flotilla may face. With the memory of the Israeli attack on the ship mavi marmara, in which ten people were killed (some of them executed), the possibility of passage was worrying, especially given the immunity that Israel had been enjoying since the previous autumn and the death of seven volunteers from the World Central Kitchen organization. April begins with the example of murder. The training covered some of these threats, we were able to learn about some drone models that could be used to identify us, stun us, and even shoot down the inside of the ship.
We have been talking, asking questions, we have been frustrated and we have tried to inform you about everything important that is happening in Istanbul regarding a mission that has been a successful operation
We treated these threats as part of a coverage that, as we mentioned, we wanted to be critical of to show our way of doing things. But this was not all. We have also met people committed to Palestine or rather human rights. We have been talking, we have asked questions, we have been frustrated and we have tried to inform you about everything important that happens in Istanbul in connection with a mission, as some of the most experienced activists we Have met, they say it has already happened. Calling for success in mobilization and efforts to stop genocide in Palestine.
In our case, today we can talk about an incomplete mission, because, as we are telling you, the flotilla will have to wait for some time, indefinitely, to depart. In our case, we feel like we did a good job under the given circumstances, but we understand that the preparations for the trip did not acquire much informative value, especially in a week that began and ended with the electoral hangover in the Spanish state. A serious political crisis occurred.
We still have to calculate the coverage, but we estimate the final cost to be around 3,000 euros (plane tickets, accommodation, communication expenses, meals, etc.). As we told you last week, a few years ago it would have been impossible for El Salto to consider coverage of these characteristics. For this reason, and because we are sure you understood the reason for the informative proposal and also why it did not turn out as planned, we would like to thank you.
During the next week we will publish another article about the Freedom Flotilla process, and we are also considering transferring one of those reports to the pages of the Summer Magazine, to which we have given the greatest care and attention, which You receive. People subscribed to the printed edition. If nothing else, we hope this letter will serve as an explanation, as a token of gratitude and as a small encouragement to pursue the journalism model in which you and we believe.