Whereas mainstream media in Italy and other countries have turned Gaza coverage into the “Flotilla vs. Israel” soap opera, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, was critical of the Flotilla action.
“The Flotilla operation does not change the situation of the Gaza people,” Pizzaballa said in an interview with Chora Media. “I would have avoided such a direct confrontation, especially thinking of the Gaza people,” because “it brings nothing to the Gaza people, I mean it certainly does not change the situation in Gaza.” Pizzaballa wished that “everything ends in the most peaceful way possible” and also that “we go back talking less about the Flotilla and more about what is going on in Gaza,” this “with due respect” for the activists and “for their good intentions, be it clear.”
The Italian government had involved Cardinal Pizzaballa in a proposal for a humanitarian corridor to deliver aid carried by the Flotilla: the ships should stop in Cyprus, whence they would reach Gaza through the Israeli port of Ashdod, in collaboration with the Latin Patriarchate. The Flotilla organizers rejected the proposal.
Pizzaballa, who has disobeyed the Israeli government orders of evacuation and has remained with his community in Gaza, nevertheless said he has the impression “that the drama of Gaza has brought out a sense of dignity that had lain unexpressed in the common conscience. Now it has emerged, it has awakened something, even indignation. I see a lot of participation, and this is a positive aspect.”
Nothing, however, has changed regarding life inside the Gaza Strip, he explained: “The images that arrive only partially do justice to the situation that people are experiencing.”
