French anti-terrorism prosecutors say they have opened a preliminary investigation into suspected “torture” and “war crimes” over Israel’s alleged mistreatment of French activists who took part in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last month. The probe was opened on Friday following a referral from the foreign ministry late last month, said the national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office (PNAT), after activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla accused Israeli authorities of severe mistreatment during their detention.
Israel abducted and detained some 430 activists from about 40 countries after intercepting them in international waters on May 18 as they made the latest in a string of attempts to break the blockade on Gaza, which the United Nations and human rights organisations say is illegal, describing it as a form of collective punishment.
Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attracted widespread condemnation after he posted a video mocking the flotilla activists while they were bound. France banned Ben-Gvir from entry and, like several other allies of Israel, summoned the Israeli ambassador over the incident.
Several French activists described what they said was a violent and humiliating ordeal when eight of them returned to France on May 22. Two of the more than 30 French people who were on board the flotilla were still hospitalised in Turkiye, they told reporters. One returnee described a soldier groping and slapping her in a dark container, and being terrified that she would beremovedd. Another recounted detained activists being put in what she called a “stress position”, on their knees with their foreheads on the ground for several hours, while the Israeli national anthem played on repeat.
Speaking to Al Jazeera late last month, Suhad Bishara, legal director at Adalah, the Israeli legal centre for Palestinian rights, said that without accountability, Israel will continue to use violence against activists. “Based on accounts received, and drawing on over a decade of representing flotilla participants, this appears to be the most severe case of ill-treatment documented in the past 10 years, potentially amounting to torture,” said Bishara.
Adalah lawyers have been informed of repeated physical violence resulting in serious injuries, prolonged stress positions, and sexual humiliation and harassment. The Global Sumud Flotilla said it has documented at least 15 cases of sexual abuse.
Lawyers for French flotilla activists have said they plan to file a separate complaint on behalf of their clients over allegations ofremoved, torture and humiliation. The activists have refused to meet with the French government to discuss their experiences, accusing it of supporting Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Asked by the AFP news agency to respond to the claims of mistreatment, the Israeli prison service said the accusations were “entirely without factual basis”.
Francesca Albanese, an outspoken UN expert on the Palestinian territory, has said the treatment of the flotilla activists “is a luxury compared to what is inflicted on Palestinians in Israeli prisons”.
Yes.
The entire strategy of the flotillas and prior international solidarity movement actions is based on using white / first world / global north privilege as a wedge in the contradiction of zionist ethno state. Using the concept of rights and value bordered by citizen status to "force" the nations of origin to choose a response, be it silence or otherwise.
It is supposed to draw attention to the absurdity of caring when these thing happen to "certain" people and not others. They are deliberately attempting to provoke a response from israel. Everyone who participates has agreed to abide by the pacifist tactical approach for the duration, therefor to submit themselves to brutality up to and including death, knowing that any paper cut they get will be more gravely treated than the death of a palestinian person. They have to do training prior to participating that includes a political component so that everyone is on the same page about how to re/act and and how to understand whatever should happen.
It's not a situation like you see domestically where privileged people decide to go to a protest and are shocked to learn that police brutality is a thing. Because it would be difficult to have such unpredictable people around in a dynamic situation, and then afterward who knows what they would go around doing or saying. The case of Corrie (above) is so well known because her parents (especially her mother) were politically educated enough to go around for the past 20+ years doing what she would have wanted of them, which is raising the issues of the inherent brutality of israel (eg 2004, 2018). She's not the only person who has been killed doing such work, but her family are the ones who have taken the cause as their own also.
There's no disrespect in this. Normally it would be rude to make a public statement comparing people's suffering, and asserting that one group's suffering is trivial, especially when that is a more privileged group. But Albanese is certainly framiliar with these groups so she is comporting with their strategy knowing that it'll be well-received. I doubt she would say the same of other activists who have undergone objectively far lesser amounts of discomfort. But in this situation there is no chance of being misconstrued.