'Treated like criminals': Handala activists detail abuse in Israeli detention

Activists aboard the Gaza-bound Handala vessel have detailed harrowing accounts of abuse and mistreatment by Israeli authorities, after their boat was seized in international waters and they were detained for days without charge.

Speaking to The New Arab, several participants described psychological and physical abuse during their captivity, accusing Israel of violating international law and weaponising humanitarian aid.

Palestinian-American lawyer and activist Huwaida Arraf, one of those on board, said the crew was subjected to "horrible conditions" and denounced the operation as "illegal", adding that Israeli forces were attempting to use the seizure for "propaganda".

The activist said Israeli naval officers had attempted to "make a propaganda campaign" out of the incident, speaking to the activists calmly and offering them food and water, all under the watchful eye of multiple cameras installed on the boat after it was seized.

"We are not taking anything from an entity that is deliberately starving children in Gaza. Our lives are not more important than those in Gaza, and we’re not going to be part of your propaganda campaigns, keep your water to yourself and deliver it to [the enclave]," she said.

But once they were handed over to Israeli police, the abuse began, according to Arraf and others.

Australian nationals Tania 'Tan' Safi and Robert Martin said they were "brutalised psychologically" and treated "like criminals" by the Israeli military, including being strip-searched, shackled, and denied external communication.

Safi recounted being strip-searched, thrown to the floor and made to squat up and down.

"In these prisons, we saw face-to-face the soullessness and the cruelty and brutality," she told The Guardian, adding they were woken by the sounds of a fellow inmate "howling and screaming and crying in pain".

Martin said he was denied medication and manhandled by prison staff.

Christian Smalls, the only Black activist aboard, said at least seven uniformed individuals physically assaulted him, kicked in the legs, choked, and left with visible marks on his neck and back.

Arraf, who holds Israeli citizenship through her Palestinian father, said she was not physically mistreated like her fellow activists, likely due to her nationality. However, she emphasised: "being treated as a criminal" for seeking to deliver aid to Gaza amid a starvation campaign was "absolutely obnoxious".

Israeli authorities initially attempted to charge the activists with illegal entry into Israel, a claim Arraf rejected, as the boat was intercepted in international waters en route to Gaza. Authorities also tried to accuse them of entering a restricted area without permission, in reference to the Gaza Strip.

Because of her Israeli citizenship, authorities could either prosecute or release Arraf. She agreed to the former. She refused their conditions for release, including a pledge not to enter Gaza for two weeks.

Eventually, the charges against Arraf were dropped and she was expelled from Israel alongside Bob Suberi, another Israeli citizen activist.

According to Arraf, other detainees who refused deportation conditions began a hunger strike to protest their treatment. "They were not given any 'time to go out for fresh air, no sanitary conditions' and slept on beds infested with 'bed bugs'."

"They were treated harshly and abused."

While acknowledging the mistreatment they endured, Arraf said it "doesn't come close to" what Palestinian detainees face in Israeli prisons, where abuse, denial of medical treatment, and administrative detention without trial are widely reported.

Lack of government action

Arraf and Suberi were released on Monday. Safi and Martin arrived in Sydney on Friday, while the last two activists, Christian Smalls and Tunisian national Hatem Aouini, were freed on Thursday.

Arraf said the activists had anticipated Israel’s actions, given past incidents, "everything that has been done before", including the sinking of boats and even the killing of volunteers.

She also criticised Western governments for failing to act.

"We expect this from Israel, but what we don’t expect is that our governments remain silent about this. The American government never provided any consular services for those detained," she said.

Adalah, the legal centre for Arab minority rights in Israel, handled legal representation for the activists.

The activists, 21 in total, had their vessel seized and diverted to Ashdod port on Saturday. The operation was condemned as a violation of international law, as the boat was intercepted roughly 40 nautical miles from Gaza, in international waters.

According to Adalah, the activists were exercising their "legitimate rights by attempting to break Israel’s illegal siege and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza".

The seizure followed a similar incident in June, when another vessel, Madleen, was intercepted and its passengers, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian MEP Rima Hassan, detained.

'We keep sailing until the siege is broken'

Despite two flotillas being seized, Arraf said pro-Palestinian activists remain steadfast in their aim to break the siege.

She rejected the idea that the Handala voyage was merely symbolic. Instead, she said the mission aimed to directly challenge Israel’s blockade and shame governments into action.

"We need to highlight and stress that this blockade is illegal and is a war crime, and no entity should be cooperating with it," she told The New Arab.

"The government on trial for genocide should not be allowed to decide on the food and aid for the people they’re actively exterminating. This is an outrageous legal order that we don’t accept."

Arraf called it "unacceptable" that governments and organisations are waiting for Israeli permission to deliver aid to Gaza, where a siege-induced famine has killed scores. The blockade, she said, must be "broken and directly challenged".

"We are using non-violent direct action to confront and challenge an unlawful policy. States should be doing it, but as long as they don’t, the people will sail."

"We will keep sailing, and we will grow until we break this siege. We cannot allow for this extermination campaign to remain."