A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #462 - Mission Handala. Desert, boycott, block the extermination (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

One - or rather two - points of departure, and a single destination. The 
recent political-humanitarian mission of the Handala, the vessel of the 
Freedom Flotilla, aimed to symbolically chart the course for 
mobilization campaigns in support of the Palestinian population of the 
Gaza Strip, victims of the genocide carried out by the Israeli 
government and its main international partners. ---- The points of 
departure, as mentioned, were the ports from which the Handala set sail: 
Syracuse and Gallipoli in Salento. A deliberate choice, dictated by the 
need of Freedom Flotilla Italia to draw public attention to the 
strategic role assumed by the regions of Sicily and Apulia in the 
processes of militarization of territory and economy. But above all, to 
denounce the shameful support provided by these regions to the 
implementation of the "final Palestinian solution" by Benjamin Netanyahu 
- the total occupation of the Strip and the deportation, driven by 
tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers, of over a million people to who 
knows which refugee camp in one of the many hells of the planet.
From Sicily, from its main death base Sigonella, depart the large cargo 
planes with which the United States transfers weapons and ammunition to 
Israel for use in the genocide unleashed after October 7, 2023. From 
Sigonella, every day, manned and unmanned aircraft of the US Navy, US 
Air Force, NATO, and military units of some European countries take off, 
reach the skies of the Eastern Mediterranean, and help identify and 
track the targets later bombed by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza, the 
West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.

Italy plays a role of true belligerence, highlighted by the use of 
several major bases in Apulia. By some cynical twist of fate, in 2023 
the elite naval unit from Tel Aviv - Shayetet 13 of Haifa, responsible 
for the last two acts of maritime piracy in the Mediterranean against 
the ships of the Freedom Flotilla, the "Madaleine" and the "Handala" - 
trained in Brindisi side by side with the marines of the "San Marco" 
Brigade, simulating precisely those high-seas boarding actions. In 
Amendola (Foggia) a year ago, the Italian Air Force paid the highest 
honors to the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Air Force, General Tomer 
Bar, identified by several NGOs as primarily responsible for the 
massacre of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza on August 10. Also in 
Amendola and over the Tyrrhenian Sea, Israeli F-16 and F-35 top gun 
pilots trained alongside Italian pilots - the same who laid waste to the 
Strip and southern Lebanon. And the airmen of the 32nd Stormo from the 
Foggia base have repeatedly traveled to the Negev Desert to practice 
drone strike operations together with the Israelis...

Sicily and Apulia are also important laboratories to reproduce, 
Italian-style, Israel's military-industrial-financial-academic complex: 
in Galatina (Lecce) an international advanced flight training school for 
fighter pilots has been opened, partnered by the Italian Air Force and 
Leonardo SpA. Here, training courses are offered to "rogue states" 
worldwide while simultaneously selling the most innovative killing 
technologies produced by the publicly owned industrial group. Something 
similar will be done in Sicily in the coming months: Minister Crosetto 
announced the creation on the island of an academy for training F-35 
fighter pilots (dual-use, with conventional and nuclear weapons), 
through an agreement between the Air Force, Leonardo and Lockheed 
Martin, including collaborations with start-ups and university research 
centers. Leading candidates for this new war school: Sigonella, 
Trapani-Birgi, Pantelleria and even the former missile base of Comiso 
(Ragusa), now a civilian airport in irreversible crisis.

The Handala mission, brutally interrupted by the raid of Israeli 
commandos, nevertheless indicated a clear and immediate path of action 
and struggle. Faced with the bloody collaborationism of governments and 
the main international political and social forces, it is up to all of 
us to put our bodies, hands and faces on the line - to dirty them with 
earth, mud and salt water rather than with the blood of our Palestinian 
sisters and brothers. Direct action at sea, in squares, streets, 
universities, arms factories, ports and airports of war logistics to 
block every process feeding the chain of Israeli genocide. Immediate 
boycotts and sanctions against all economic, financial, diplomatic, 
military, "cultural," and sporting entities that legitimize the ethnic 
cleansing and apartheid of the Palestinian people.

In less than a month, Tel Aviv's "game" against the residents of the 
Gaza Strip could be definitively concluded - with the eradication of all 
forms of life and the total desertification of the territory and its 
coast. Netanyahu and the IDF have announced that on October 7, 2025, 
they will celebrate the second anniversary of Hamas's offensive with 
full military and administrative control of Gaza and the imprisonment of 
a million exhausted men, women, and children in the largest open-air 
zoo-prison on the planet. Seven days later another "match" is scheduled 
to be played in Udine: Italy-Israel, a 2026 World Cup qualifier. On a 
field drenched in blood, some would like to hide the holocaust and 
absolve its brutal perpetrators. Handala - the humanity on board that 
called for a small act of humanity where humanity has been annihilated 
by Israeli barbarism - asks us to prevent this death-delirium match by 
any means. Italy-Israel must not be played now or ever, whatever the cost.

In Naples, the fans are clear. In an alley of the Spanish Quarters, a 
large mural was created with Diego Armando Maradona and the Palestinian 
flag. If Diego were alive, he - who held Palestine in his heart - would 
call for desertion. Deserting, boycotting, and blocking with our bodies 
the slaughter under the bombs, hunger and thirst of the Palestinian 
people are imperatives no one today can shirk.
We will answer to history and to the children of our children for what 
we have and have not done in these tragic late summer days of 2025.

Antonio Mazzeo

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en