Portuguese made fun of Mortágua, but Ramalho Eanes did the same and was a hero

Why wasn’t a public petition created for Indonesia to stay with the former President of the Republic?

“First are the Portuguese!” or “first are some Portuguese”? From the return of Mariana Mortágua, Miguel Duarte, Sofia Aparício and Diogo Chaves, we expected, at the very least, a moment of sigh and general compassion for four Portuguese people who, of their own free will, risked their safety to, peacefully, do something against what they are inevitable realitiestwo years of war later:

• the death of 1 in every 3 people in Gaza (more than 67 thousand Palestinians, including around 20 thousand children);
• widespread in the enclave, due to the blockade of humanitarian aid carried out by Israel and the USA. At least 459 people starved to death, including 154 children;
• the Israeli occupation of almost the entire territory of the Gaza Strip and the forced displacement of practically the entire population, which led to thousands of missing people and the separation of families;
• the destruction of 92% of Gaza’s residential structure, according to the UN, 125 hospitals and clinics and 89% of the health infrastructure, currently damaged or destroyed;
• the deadliest conflict in history for journalists around the world, with more than 300 journalists killed.

It’s reality, it happened and is happening, whether Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are to blame or not. But the compassion was not general. Surprisingly, those who shout the most “the Portuguese come first!” They do not feel compassion for Mariana Mortágua nor for the other three Portuguese who, after spending more than a month on a boat and three days detained by Israeli forces — allegedly — returned to Portugal this Sunday. Quite the opposite.

Upon arrival, the coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda asked for rest and thanked the consular support provided to her and the other activists. He thanked “our diplomatic structure, the consul in Israel and the ambassador in Israel”.

The deputy’s ‘thank you’ did not extend to the Government. And why would Mortágua thank Luís Montenegro’s Executive? After all, the Prime Minister criticized the humanitarian mission, as did Defense Minister Nuno Melo, who copied the Israeli narrative and classified the peaceful trip to Gaza as “pamphleteer”, irresponsible” and accused Mortágua of collaborating with “terrorists”. And despite Paulo Rangel, Minister of Foreign Affairs, having said that the detention is “illegal” if the occurrence is confirmed. Outside Israeli jurisdiction, that is, in international waters, Montenegro once again avoided talking about Israel’s actions. Even silence has a voice, and indifference was reflected in the Portuguese people, in hatred.

A quick look at the comments on the news about the Summud Global Flotilla’s trip, on social media, and this hatred stands out and overrides the support for the four Portuguese people who, whether you like it or not, risk their safety to show solidarity with innocent people. A public petition was addressed to “anyone who is fed up with boring people” and asked the State of Israel not to return Mariana Mortágua to Portugal. More than 64 thousand people signed it. Why? Solely and simply because “we can no longer put up with it”, justifies the petition.

But a trip with many similarities ‘washes up’ because of this whole subject and brings with it a question: if there were social networks in 1992, would Ramalho Eanes be massacred by people with a similar lack of humanity?

The Lusitânia Expresso “flotilla”

O Lusitânia Expresso he left in 1992, also as a sea voyage with an international peace mission in a war scenario; it also took on board journalists, students, public figures and politicians, such as a former president of the Republic — for many, one of the best that democracy has ever had — António Ramalho Eanes.

The mission “Peace in Timor” It was an initiative by Forum Student magazine which, in the face of the massacre carried out by Indonesia in Dili on November 12, 1991, sought — in a very similar way, in practice, to the flotilla to Gaza — to condemn the violence committed by Indonesia in East Timor. On that fateful day, around two thousand Timorese were shot at by Indonesian soldiers during a tribute to Sebastião Gomes, a member of the Timorese resistance. 398 people diedand the massacre was a window into what was happening in Timor — especially for the Portuguese, who could hear, in the images shared on television, the victims praying in Portuguese moments before their deaths.

A mission that left Lisbon with 15 crew members, in defense of the victims of the massacre, arrived in Darwin three months later (8 March 1992) with 120 passengers from 23 countries on board.

The symbolic objective of ferry-boat was to place a wreath at the Santa Cruz cemetery, in memory of the victims. The mission’s main objective was to denounce and condemn the violence committed by an army against a people and to raise public awareness, the same objective as the Flotilla that seems to have passed by many people: Mortágua did not take cans of tuna to the Palestiniansjust as Eanes did not try to go to Timor to put flowers on the heads of 398 dead people.

And also like the flotilla, the Lusitânia Expresso was flown over and surrounded by forces opposing the mission; he was also threatened by them, without rights, when he approached his final destination; He was also intercepted, at the entrance to Timorese waters, by four warships from these opposing forces and forced to return to Portugal.

Eanes and the other activists were never able to place the flowers in the cemetery: they threw them into the sea, in memory of the victims, and the trip, as , recalls, “was a milestone in the history of the struggle for the liberation and independence of East Timor”, which would come to fruition 10 years later. And the public petition to expel Ramalho Eanes from Portugal has yet to be found.