Mallorcan activist Reyes Rigo has stated that being detained in Israel for almost two weeks ‘was worth it’ after returning to Spain today, Monday morning, with five other members of the Freedom Flotilla, and has warned that they will continue to send flotillas until ‘Palestine is free’. ‘It was worth it. We will return. We must denounce the genocidal Israeli state that kidnapped us in international waters and took us to a prison for prisoners, or rather, for terrorists,’ Rigo told the media upon her arrival at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport.
She also urged the Spanish government to file a complaint with the international courts and denounce ‘this kidnapping and imprisonment,’ which in her opinion is ‘nothing compared to what our brothers are suffering’ in Palestine, where there are women, children and men ‘rotting in the prisons of the genocidal state.’
Rigo went on to celebrate that the work of the flotillas ‘has somehow shaken the world’ and said that as many as necessary will be sent until ‘Palestine is free’. Finally, she called on workers to join the general strike on 15 October in solidarity with Palestine. Other members of the flotilla urged people to focus on the West Bank as well, and not just Gaza. ‘Please, it’s Palestine, it’s not Gaza, it’s not the West Bank, it’s the whole of Palestine,’ they emphasised.
Reyes Rigo was the only Spanish member of the Global Sumud Flotilla - the first flotilla - who remained detained in Israel since 1 October. She landed at 8.20 a.m. in Madrid along with the last five members of the Freedom Flotilla - the second flotilla - on an Iberia commercial flight that departed at dawn from the Qatari capital, Doha.
On Saturday, three other Spanish activists from the second flotilla, which was intercepted by the Israeli authorities last week, landed in Madrid, including Jimena González, a member of the Más Madrid party.
The coordinator of Podemos Baleares, Lucía Muñoz, and fellow party member Alejandra Martínez, as well as other relatives of the flotilla members, were at Madrid airport to welcome them, amid cries of support for Palestine and their humanitarian aid mission to Gaza.
This new operation to return to Spain, like the previous ones, has been managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from its central offices, the Spanish Embassy and the consul in Tel Aviv, ‘who have done an extraordinary job’, according to Foreign Affairs sources. This means that there are no longer any Spaniards from the flotilla being held in Israel, after a total of 57 people - 49 from the Global Sumud Flotilla and eight from the Freedom Flotilla - have returned to Spain in the last two weeks after being detained in Ktziot prison, located in the Negev desert.
The last six Spaniards, who arrived at Terminal 4S of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport from Qatar, had been imprisoned until now ‘for refusing to sign the voluntary deportation order,’ sources from the Rumbo a Gaza flotilla told Europa Press. Reyes Rigo finally arrived in Spain after reaching an agreement with the prosecutor’s office to reduce the charges against her.
According to Lucía Muñoz, a councillor for Unidas Podemos on Palma City Council, who also took part in the flotilla, the Spanish consul informed Rigo’s family that during a hearing held on Friday, this agreement had been reached with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and a fine had been imposed on the activist.
A court in Beer Sheva accepted the agreement after Rigo pleaded guilty to causing bodily harm and aggravated assault to a guard at the prison where she was being held. Initially, charges were brought against her for allegedly biting a guard’s hand and refusing to enter her cell, but this charge was later amended to allege that she had dug her nails into the officer while resisting.
Under the agreement, the court finally sentenced her to ten days in prison — which she had already served — as well as a fine of 10,000 shekels (about €2,650) and ordered her deportation. During her appearance before the judge, Rigo reported being mistreated while in custody. ‘They beat us, they pushed us, and on the fifth day they attacked my friend and I tried to protect her,’ she said, according to the Israeli newspaper. ‘They grabbed me by the head and my glasses fell off,’ she added, explaining that she was held with thirteen other women in a cell with a capacity for five, that they were not given water and that they were given ‘rotten’ food.