Mexico, November 17th, 2024
Dear Vangelis,
I was looking for a friend and comrade who could have a concrete strategy to put an efficient pressure on Netanyahu´s murderous regime, but you did not answer. I was looking also for a friend and comrade who would be able to explain to the people in Western Europe, especially in Germany and Austria, that the genocide which is taking place in Gaza and the Westbank has nothing to do with the holocaust which serves the Zionists in the Israeli governments as an excuse for their inhuman brutality. And I was looking for someone who could explain to me, why the United Nations who have been attacked directly in Gaza and in the Lebanon, do not exercise their right of self-defense by applying Chapter VII of the UN Charter, but you are not here anymore.
We have lost not only a dear friend, but above all a great human being who was able to crosscut the chains of two million Palestinians in Gaza by running a small boat directly to the shores of the East Mediterranean. We lost someone for whom PEACE in Syria and elsewhere was not a simple word, but an appeal to intervene in the worldwide craziness which surrounds us. For all of us who had the privilege to know you, you will remain an example of courage and bravery. Its now up to us to transmit the message of your life to future generations.
I remember very well, when we met for the first time in 2003 in Bagdad, just one week before Bush´s bombs started to fall on tens of thousands of innocent people. You insisted that we had to stay till the last moment in order to tell to the world, that this war not only was based on the big lie that Saddam Hussein was using arms of mass destruction, but also would cause civil wars in the aftermath.
Dear Vangelis, if you were born in another century people would have called you a “prophet” perhaps or a “saint” according to the religion they confess. I however call you in the 21st century quite simply a “compañero comandante” following several others who dedicated and gave their lives to the cause of justice and equality.
Perhaps one day we will meet again and will laugh at each other as we did so many times.
In the meantime, rest in peace!
Leo Gabriel
Journalist and Anthropologist
Member of the International Council of the World Social Forum
https://www.defenddemocracy.
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