B1 · Intermediate
11 min
historyinternational lawconflicthumanitarian affairs
The Sea and the Blockade: A History of Flotillas
El Mar y el Bloqueo: Historia de las Flotillas
Israel deports two activists seized from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla intercepted near Greece. That event opens a deeper conversation about the history of naval blockades, international law, and civilian maritime protest.
Israel deporta a dos activistas detenidos después de interceptar una flotilla humanitaria cerca de Grecia. Este hecho abre una conversación sobre la historia de los bloqueos navales, el derecho internacional y las protestas civiles en el mar.
7 essential B1-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| bloqueo | blockade / blockage | El bloqueo económico afectó a muchos ciudadanos del país. |
| flotilla | flotilla / small fleet | La flotilla intentó llegar al puerto con ayuda humanitaria. |
| interceptar | to intercept | La marina interceptó el barco antes de llegar a la costa. |
| deportar | to deport | Las autoridades deportaron a los dos activistas extranjeros. |
| sitio | place / siege | Este sitio es perfecto para una reunión; pero en la historia, el sitio de la ciudad duró meses. |
| aguas internacionales | international waters | El barco estaba en aguas internacionales cuando llegaron los soldados. |
| ayuda humanitaria | humanitarian aid | La organización envió ayuda humanitaria a las familias afectadas. |
Here's a detail that stopped me this week: two activists were deported by Israel after their ship was boarded in international waters near Greece.
Not near Gaza.
Near Greece.
Sí, es un momento muy importante.
Yes, it's a very significant moment.
Israel interceptó la flotilla antes de llegar a Gaza, en aguas internacionales.
Israel intercepted the flotilla before it reached Gaza, in international waters.
Los dos activistas se llaman Thiago Ávila y Saif Abu Keshek.
The two activists are named Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek.
Ahora están deportados.
They have now been deported.
Right.
And what strikes me is that this isn't the first time.
There's a history here that goes back well over a decade, and I want to get into it properly.
Claro.
Of course.
Para entender este momento, necesitamos hablar del año 2010.
To understand this moment, we need to talk about the year 2010.
Ese año hubo un incidente muy famoso con un barco que se llamaba el Mavi Marmara.
That year there was a very famous incident involving a ship called the Mavi Marmara.
I covered the aftermath of that.
The Mavi Marmara was a Turkish vessel, part of a flotilla trying to break the Gaza blockade.
Israeli commandos boarded it at night, and nine people were killed.
Nueve personas muertas, todas turcas.
Nine people dead, all Turkish.
Fue un momento de crisis enorme entre Israel y Turquía.
It was a moment of enormous crisis between Israel and Turkey.
Los dos países eran aliados importantes, pero después del Mavi Marmara, las relaciones se rompieron completamente.
The two countries were important allies, but after the Mavi Marmara, relations broke down completely.
Turkey recalled its ambassador.
There were years of deep freeze between Ankara and Tel Aviv.
It took until about 2022 for them to normalize relations again.
The diplomatic cost of that single night was enormous.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y el bloqueo de Gaza empezó en 2007, después de que Hamás tomó el control de la franja.
And the Gaza blockade started in 2007, after Hamas took control of the strip.
Israel y Egipto cerraron las fronteras.
Israel and Egypt closed the borders.
El objetivo era, según Israel, evitar el contrabando de armas.
The stated goal, according to Israel, was to prevent arms smuggling.
Which is where it gets complicated, because the blockade didn't just restrict weapons.
It restricted cement, paper, pasta at one point.
The UN documented what they called a policy of keeping Gaza at subsistence level.
Sí.
Yes.
Y las flotillas llegaron como respuesta a eso.
And the flotillas came as a response to that.
La idea era simple: llevar ayuda humanitaria por el mar porque el camino por tierra estaba cerrado.
The idea was simple: bring humanitarian aid by sea because the land route was closed.
Era un acto político y también una protesta.
It was a political act and also a protest.
And the interesting thing historically is that using ships to make a political point is not new at all.
The tradition goes back centuries.
Sí, tienes razón.
Yes, you're right.
Piensa en el Tea Party de Boston en 1773.
Think about the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
Un grupo de americanos subió a tres barcos británicos y lanzó el té al mar.
A group of Americans boarded three British ships and threw the tea into the sea.
Fue un acto político muy dramático.
It was a very dramatic political act.
Which shows that challenging a maritime power's control over goods has always been one of the most loaded gestures available.
The sea has always been political.
Y los bloqueos navales tienen una historia muy larga también.
And naval blockades also have a very long history.
En la Primera Guerra Mundial, Gran Bretaña bloqueó los puertos de Alemania.
In World War One, Britain blockaded Germany's ports.
En la Segunda Guerra Mundial, los alemanes atacaron los barcos del Atlántico.
In World War Two, the Germans attacked ships in the Atlantic.
The British blockade of Germany in the First World War actually killed somewhere between 400,000 and 800,000 German civilians through malnutrition and disease.
That's a number most people have never heard.
Es un número terrible.
It's a terrible number.
Y después de esa guerra, el mundo creó nuevas reglas sobre los bloqueos.
And after that war, the world created new rules about blockades.
El derecho internacional dice que un bloqueo debe ser declarado formalmente y no puede bloquear la ayuda humanitaria.
International law says a blockade must be formally declared and cannot block humanitarian aid.
Which is the core of the legal argument around Gaza.
Israel maintains it isn't a blockade in the formal legal sense, but a security closure.
Critics say that distinction is basically cosmetic.
La diferencia es importante legalmente, pero para las personas que viven en Gaza, el resultado es el mismo.
The difference is legally important, but for the people living in Gaza, the result is the same.
No pueden salir libremente y la entrada de bienes está muy controlada.
They cannot leave freely and the entry of goods is very tightly controlled.
Now, the 2010 incident had a specific legal aftermath.
A UN panel found that Israel's blockade was legal but that the raid itself involved excessive and unreasonable force.
Neither side was entirely satisfied with that verdict.
Claro.
Of course.
Y después del Mavi Marmara, las flotillas continuaron, pero con menos barcos y menos personas.
And after the Mavi Marmara, the flotillas continued, but with fewer ships and fewer people.
El peligro era muy real.
The danger was very real.
La organización Freedom Flotilla intentó llegar a Gaza varias veces.
The Freedom Flotilla organization tried to reach Gaza several times.
This latest flotilla, the one that was intercepted near Greece, that's Freedom Flotilla again.
Same organization, different ships.
And the fact that it was stopped near Greece, not even close to Israeli waters, tells you how far the net has been cast.
Eso es lo que más me sorprende.
That's what surprises me most.
Grecia cooperó con la operación.
Greece cooperated with the operation.
Y esto muestra el poder diplomático de Israel, que puede convencer a un país europeo para parar un barco humanitario en el Mediterráneo.
And this shows Israel's diplomatic power, being able to convince a European country to stop a humanitarian ship in the Mediterranean.
Greece has its own complicated relationship with Turkey, which is often the major backer of these flotillas.
So there's a whole other layer of regional politics underneath this that has nothing to do with Gaza at all.
Exacto.
Exactly.
La política en el Mediterráneo es siempre muy complicada.
Mediterranean politics is always very complicated.
Y los activistas deportados ahora, Thiago Ávila y Saif Abu Keshek, no son soldados.
And the deported activists, Thiago Ávila and Saif Abu Keshek, are not soldiers.
Son activistas civiles.
They are civilian activists.
Which brings up a question that runs through all of this history.
When a state boards a civilian vessel in international waters and removes people, what does international law actually say?
Because the answer is genuinely murky.
El derecho internacional del mar dice que un barco en aguas internacionales está bajo la jurisdicción del país de su bandera.
The law of the sea says a ship in international waters is under the jurisdiction of its flag state.
Para parar ese barco, normalmente necesitas una razón legal muy específica, como piratería o contrabando.
To stop that ship, you normally need a very specific legal reason, such as piracy or smuggling.
Israel argues the blockade of Gaza extends to the high seas under the laws of war.
Most maritime legal scholars disagree with that interpretation.
It's been a live debate since 2010 and nobody has produced a definitive ruling.
Y eso es un problema grande.
And that's a big problem.
Cuando las reglas no son claras, el más poderoso decide.
When the rules aren't clear, the most powerful party decides.
Israel tiene una marina muy fuerte.
Israel has a very strong navy.
Los activistas tienen un barco pequeño y buenas intenciones.
The activists have a small ship and good intentions.
That asymmetry is the whole point of the flotillas, though.
You send a civilian boat precisely because you want the power imbalance to be visible.
You're daring the other side to show its hand.
Sí, es una estrategia política clásica.
Yes, it's a classic political strategy.
Gandhi usó la misma idea con la Marcha de la Sal en 1930.
Gandhi used the same idea with the Salt March in 1930.
Llevó a miles de personas a recoger sal del mar para desafiar el monopolio británico.
He led thousands of people to collect salt from the sea to challenge the British monopoly.
Fue una acción simple pero con un mensaje muy poderoso.
It was a simple action but with a very powerful message.
And the British obliged by arresting him, which was exactly what he wanted.
The arrest was the story.
The salt was almost beside the point.
History really does repeat itself in very specific ways.
Muy bien dicho, Fletcher.
Well put, Fletcher.
El mensaje de las flotillas de Gaza es similar.
The message of the Gaza flotillas is similar.
No pueden llevar suficiente comida para dos millones de personas en un barco pequeño.
They cannot carry enough food for two million people on a small ship.
Pero pueden mostrar al mundo que el bloqueo existe.
But they can show the world that the blockade exists.
And that's actually been the most effective thing about them.
Not the aid delivered, which has been minimal, but the media coverage generated.
Every interception creates a news cycle.
It's protest as theater, in the best sense.
Aunque hay personas que dicen que estas acciones no cambian nada en la práctica.
Although there are people who say these actions change nothing in practice.
El bloqueo continúa.
The blockade continues.
Las condiciones en Gaza son todavía muy difíciles.
Conditions in Gaza are still very difficult.
¿Cuánto tiempo más se puede continuar con esta estrategia?
How much longer can this strategy continue?
That's the honest critique.
And I've heard it from Palestinian activists too, not just Israeli defenders.
The question of whether symbolic action eventually produces real change, or whether it just becomes a ritual of confrontation, that's one of the oldest arguments in activist politics.
Es verdad.
That's true.
Pero cuando pienso en la historia, las acciones simbólicas muchas veces funcionaron.
But when I think about history, symbolic actions have often worked.
El movimiento de los derechos civiles en Estados Unidos usó mucho el simbolismo.
The civil rights movement in the United States used symbolism a great deal.
Las marchas, los autobuses, las tiendas de comida.
The marches, the buses, the lunch counters.
Fue simbólico pero cambió las leyes.
It was symbolic but it changed the laws.
Fair point.
Rosa Parks sitting down on a bus in Montgomery didn't feed a single hungry person that day.
But it was part of a sustained campaign that changed the legal architecture of a country.
The two things are different.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y la diferencia importante es que las flotillas de Gaza no tienen una campaña política organizada detrás.
And the important difference is that the Gaza flotillas don't have an organized political campaign behind them.
Son un grupo de personas con mucha valentía pero sin un plan político claro a largo plazo.
They are a group of people with a lot of courage but without a clear long-term political plan.
Which may be their limitation.
Anyway.
Let me ask you something before we wrap up, because you used a word earlier that I want to come back to.
You said 'bloqueo' for blockade, but I also hear 'sitio' sometimes in Spanish for the same concept.
Are those the same thing?
Buena pregunta.
Good question.
No, no es lo mismo.
No, they're not the same.
Un 'sitio' es cuando un ejército rodea una ciudad por tierra para capturarla.
A 'sitio' is when an army surrounds a city by land to capture it.
Como el Sitio de Madrid en la Guerra Civil.
Like the Siege of Madrid in the Civil War.
Un 'bloqueo' es más general, puede ser por mar o puede ser económico.
A 'bloqueo' is more general, it can be by sea or it can be economic.
So 'sitio' is specifically a siege, like surrounding a physical place.
And 'bloqueo' is the broader idea of cutting off access, which could be a port, an economy, anything really.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y nota que en español también decimos 'bloqueo económico' para sanciones.
And note that in Spanish we also say 'economic blockade' for sanctions.
'El bloqueo de Cuba' por ejemplo.
'The blockade of Cuba' for example.
No es militar, es económico.
It's not military, it's economic.
La palabra es muy flexible.
The word is very flexible.
And in English we make the same distinction, siege versus blockade.
But I never thought about whether Spanish had separate words for it.
I assumed 'sitio' just meant 'place', as in location.
'Sitio' tiene los dos significados, Fletcher.
'Sitio' has both meanings, Fletcher.
Significa lugar, como en 'este sitio es muy bonito'.
It means place, as in 'this place is very nice'.
Y también significa sitio militar, el asedio.
And it also means military siege.
Todo depende del contexto.
It all depends on context.
So if I told someone this podcast is a 'sitio' I'd either be calling it a nice place or declaring war on it.
Possibly both, depending on the week.
Las dos cosas al mismo tiempo, Fletcher.
Both things at the same time, Fletcher.
Exactamente como la historia que estudiamos hoy.
Exactly like the history we studied today.