This is David Adler, now in Amman, Jordan, having been only recently liberated from an internment camp in the Naqab Desert, where I was held with hundreds of other participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla for five days in horrific conditions that have yet to be reported.
We were intercepted illegally and violently by Israeli naval forces. Many of these interceptions were caught on CCTV. Others were not, such as the case of our Ohwayla, which was targeted by a barge that sought to destroy and sink our boat. Our belongings and our boats were stolen from us. We were kidnapped, stripped, zip-tied, blindfolded, and sent to an internment camp, on a police van, without any access to food, water, or legal support. For the next five days, on and off, we were psychologically tortured.
People were taken individually out of their cells and regularly beaten, handcuffed, ankle-cuffed, and left in solitary confinement. This happened many times over many days. We were denied the most basic things, like critical access to insulin for diabetic detainees that were part of the flotilla. In short, we were treated as terrorists, just as national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had promised.
From the first moment that we stepped onto that tarmac after interception, we were violently forced onto our knees into positions of submission. The two Jews of the flotilla were taken by the rear and ripped from the group for a photo op with Ben-Gvir — staring at the flag of the State of Israel and taunted by his goons. Thus began a five-day nightmare of serial and systematic violation of our most basic rights. Reports varied from the different cellblocks. But one report that is consistent is that we were all denied food and water. At all times, we were denied access to medicine based on the whims of individual officers working shifts.
Any requests for medical attention were denied or delayed indefinitely. We had no access to lawyers or legal representation. Consular…
Auteur: David Adler
