Photo: Lorena Sopena/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Last week, Greta Thunberg and 436 other activists, lawyers, and parliamentarians were arrested and detained by Israeli officials. Sailing as the Global Sumud Flotilla, a coalition of 42 vessels attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza in the midst of a 16-year naval blockade by Israel and Egypt and what a growing body of institutions and experts calls a genocide by Israel, participants from 44 different countries had departed from Europe late August. Since their arrest, over a hundred flotilla crew members have been deported, and several have testified to brutal mistreatment, especially of Thunberg.
Detainees have described threats to their lives and beatings and claimed they were denied access to food, water, sleep, and medication. “At any time that any of us called a police officer, we risked that seven or more fully armed people entered to our cell, as they did on mine, pointing us with weapons at our heads, with dogs ready to attack us, and being dragged to the floor,” one Spanish activist told Reuters. An Australian delegate reportedly notified his country’s officials that he was slapped to the ground and his arm was dislocated. Lawyers from the Israeli human-rights organization Adalah stated that crew members’ rights were “systematically violated … in clear breach of their fundamental rights to due process, impartial trial, and legal representation.”
Thunberg, who had already been captured, detained, then deported from Israel for her participation in a similar aid flotilla in June, was allegedly targeted by officials. The Turkish journalist Ersin Celik told local news outlets that Israeli forces “dragged little Greta by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag.” He added, “They publicly humiliated her and targeted her specifically because she’s a well-known figure.” The Italian journalist Lorenzo Agostino offered a similar account, saying Thunberg was “wrapped in an Israeli flag and exhibited like a trophy.” One American citizen who was also detained, Windfield Beaver, said Thunberg was “treated terribly” and “used as propaganda,” per Al Jazeera.
According to an email sent by the Swedish Foreign Ministry to Thunberg’s family and friends that was reviewed by the Guardian, Thunberg described “dehydration,” “insufficient amounts of both water and food,” and “rashes which she suspects were caused by bedbugs” to a Swedish official who visited her. “Another detainee reportedly told another embassy that they had seen [Thunberg] being forced to hold flags while pictures were taken,” the official added. “She wondered whether images of her had been distributed.”
Far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stood by the treatment of the imprisoned activists. “I was proud that we treat the ‘flotilla activists’ as supporters of terrorism,” he said in a statement. “Anyone who supports terrorism is a terrorist and deserves the conditions of terrorists. If any of them thought they would come here and receive a red carpet and trumpets — they were mistaken.” The Israel Foreign Ministry denied that any abuses had occurred, telling reporters, “All detainees from the Hamas-Sumud provocation were given access to water, food, and toilets; they were not denied access to legal counsel, and all their legal rights, including access to medical care, were fully upheld.”
Demonstrations in several major cities erupted last week to protest Israel’s interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla, most of which was stopped about 70 miles from Israel’s shore. (U.N. laws stipulate that a nation’s territory does not extend beyond 12 nautical miles from its shores; the U.S. does not follow this convention.)
Thunberg was deported to Greece, where she was greeted by cheering supporters at the airport Monday. During a press conference there today, she declined to elaborate upon her own treatment in prison: “That is not the story,” she said. “Israel is escalating genocide and mass destruction with genocidal intent, attempting to erase an entire population in front of our eyes.” Many flotilla members still remain imprisoned in Israel, including 21 Americans.
