Cerisa van Hasteren needed ten hours of sleep after her return on Friday evening. De Cuijkse was one of the crew members of the international Sumud flotilla to Gaza, which was intercepted by Israeli authorities on Tuesday. “I’m doing well under the circumstances, but my wrists still hurt,” she says.
“We landed at Schiphol at 5:05 p.m. It was nice to see everyone again,” says Cerisa. The Cuijk-born activist left home on April 17 to board a boat in Italy to Israel on April 26. She sailed at sea for almost a month, together with seven others.
She and her fellow passengers had escaped interception twice before. “On the third time, I was on the phone with a friend. She was watching the live stream of the boats and saw how the boat called Andros was intercepted. It was sailing in front of us. I told her: I have to hang up now, I have to start preparing,” she says. “Not even ten minutes later, shots were fired at our boat and the Israelis were on board.” No one was injured in the shooting.
Heavy journey
The Israelis took her and her fellow passengers to what she describes as a prison ship. “My head was immediately pushed down and I was pressed against a container. They shouted twenty times where my passport was, even though they had already taken it from our boat,” she says.
She and many others had to spend the night in one of the containers on the ship. “It was very cold. The floor was flooded. I was shivering so much that others thought I was having an epileptic fit.”
Still went to Gaza
Cerisa went to Gaza to bring food and medicine. For her, that weighed more heavily than the chance of being intercepted by Israel. “No one could have imagined that they would intercept people before Crete. We had not even reached Crete yet,” she says.
According to her, previous interceptions were less intense. “At that time there were still mattresses on the ship and there was no shooting. We also received food and drinks. Now we received nothing at all for 48 hours.”
Homecoming
Upon arrival at Schiphol, the activist was received emotionally by her father. She says she is happy to be back home and that her family was waiting for her. Despite the intense experience, what predominates for her is the feeling of relief to be back safely.
