- Bianca Webb-Pullman says detainees beaten, denied water, forced into stress positions after Israel intercepted Global Sumud Flotilla
Activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was attempting to break Israel’s blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, recounted the violence they faced after being detained by Israel.
Australian doctor Bianca Webb-Pullman, French activist Adrien Jouan and Belgian activist Arno Meyne, all participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla, spoke to Anadolu about their experiences during the mission after arriving in Türkiye.
Webb-Pullman said she joined the flotilla, along with other health care workers, to deliver humanitarian and medical aid to Gaza.
The doctor said she was aware of the “terrible treatment of the Palestinian people” and particularly attacks on health care services.
“It’s so important for us to be able to be part of this flotilla and bring humanitarian and medical aid to people desperately in need,” she said.
Webb-Pullman described Israel’s intervention against the flotilla as “quite aggressive” and said projectiles were fired at her boat.
“They probably weren’t live bullets, but they were firing projectiles at our boat,” said Webb-Pullman, adding that no one on her vessel was hit.
She said activists were handled roughly after being transferred to what she described as a prison boat before being dragged off the vessel at the port and forced into stress positions.
“We were kept there for over an hour while the Israeli soldiers played the national anthem over and over again, and they were saying, ‘Welcome to Israel,’ and being brutal with people,” she said.
“They were hitting people, kicking people, and this went on throughout the whole process of being processed at the dock. It was extremely degrading,” added Webb-Pullman.
She stressed that activists aboard the flotilla had come together from around the world to help people in need.
“We are not criminals. We are treated worse than animals. I mean, an animal, you would give water,” she said.
The doctor also said that no medical care was provided by Israel, and health care workers on board, despite also being subjected to violence, had to care for injured passengers.
“So many of my medical colleagues had severe violence inflicted upon them, and they were forced to look after patients in a boat with no medical support from the IOF,” she said, referring to the Israel Occupation Forces.
‘When they beat me, it was for no reason’
French national Adrien Jouan showed bruises and wounds on his body as he described the physical violence he said participants endured.
“Yes, they beat me, but a lot in the back also, in the first boat, on the prison boat, when they picked us. And it was a kind of torture,” said Jouan.
He said everyone aboard the boat was subjected to violence.
“But still, it’s nothing compared to what they do to Palestinians,” he added.
Jouan noted that Israel intervened differently against each boat in the flotilla, adding that while his vessel was not fired upon, they were still subjected to violence despite offering no resistance from the beginning.
“We stayed really quiet, really pacifist from the beginning to the end,” he said. “When they beat me, it was for no reason, absolutely. I was not escalating, not answering them, not watching them in their eyes, nothing. Just saying I’m a pacifist. They did it systematically.
He also said he intended to pursue legal action against Israeli soldiers because of the incident.
“It’s not normal that they can do so many things that are illegal, and we should pursue them for sure,” he said.
Jouan said he was still suffering pain following the incident and that some detainees of Arab background or those who did not appear to be “white Europeans” were subjected to harsher treatment.
“Some Arabic people, or some looking like not white Europeans, were much more beaten than I was, and more kind of tortured too,” he said.
Belgian activist Arno Meyne said they were taken to a ship converted into a prison following Israel’s intervention, and everyone arrived injured.
Meyne said many aboard the ship suffered fractures and head trauma. and said that there were also cases of sexual assault.
*Writing by Gizem Nisa Demir
