Flotilla Activist Describes Kidnapping By Israel in International Waters

Spanish citizen Saif Abukeshek, an activist of Palestinian origin, speaks with Democracy Now! about spending 10 days in Israeli detention after he was abducted in international waters. He was among 175 international activists sailing to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has for years tried to breach Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

Abukeshek and Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila were the only flotilla members detained for “questioning” inside Israel, where they say they faced severe physical abuse in detention. Abukeshek, speaking from Turkey, says being dual nationals provided them some protection because of international attention. “Imagine how Palestinians are being treated. Imagine the violations that people from Palestine are receiving,” he says.

TRANSCRIPT

Israel has deported two activists who were violently abducted from a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla. They were abducted by Israeli forces in international waters last month. The activists were sailing with the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was challenging Israel’s maritime blockade and trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians devastated by years of war.

Thiago Ávila of Brazil and Spanish national Palestinian Saif Abukeshek were among 175 international activists forced off their aid ships at gunpoint. While most of the activists were released in Crete, Abukeshek and Ávila were taken to Israel for so-called questioning, according to Israeli authorities. Hadeel Abu Salih, an attorney on their legal team, called their detention unlawful and a, quote, “sham proceeding with no legal basis, intended to punish them for attempting to challenge Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza,” unquote. The attorney also said they both faced severe physical abuse by their Israeli captors.

The governments of Brazil and Spain, President Lula of Brazil and the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, condemned Israel’s actions and called for the immediate release of their citizens.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused Abukeshek and Ávila of affiliation with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, or PCPA, an organization U.S. and Israeli officials have claimed is a front for Hamas, although no charges were brought against the two men, and they were released and deported on Sunday.

THIAGO ÁVILA: We need to defeat Netanyahu and Donald Trump. We need to defeat the war criminals. We need to defeat the industrial-military complex that profits from war, the Big Techs that wants to control our lives. We need to build a different future for us. And yes, he committed another war crime, but what he did against us is nothing compared to what they do to Palestinians every single day. Once again, we always need to say this: It’s not about us individually; it’s about a people that has been suffering eight decades of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila speaking upon his return to Brazil, where his mother, Teresa Regina de Ávila e Silva, sadly, died while her son was in Israeli detention, following a long illness.

Fellow activist, Spanish national Saif Abukeshek also spoke to supporters following his release.

SAIF ABUKESHEK: I left behind me thousands of Palestinian prisoners, children, women and men. I am sure that the treatment I faced does not compare to the suffering they are going through, the testimonies we hear of their torture, of their violation on a daily basis. We have to continue mobilizing. We cannot forget the Palestinian prisoners.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go now to Turkey, where we are joined by that activist, Saif Abukeshek. He’s a Spanish and Swedish national of Palestinian descent and a member of the Global Sumud Flotilla steering committee, just released from Israeli detention and deported after being seized by Israeli forces in international waters in April.

Saif, thank you so much for being with us. Can you describe your abduction? Can you describe what happened? And particularly talk about what happened in Israeli custody in Israel.

SAIF ABUKESHEK: Thank you. Thank you, Amy. And it’s good to hear you again.

I did not expect to be out such an early time. We are used on the continuous violations of Israel and for them to act as they want. So, another crime, as Thiago said, has been committed, and we still see the complicity and the impunity that they act with.

On the 30th of April, they all of a sudden, more than 700 nautical miles away from the shores of Gaza, they have intercepted part of our boats. And they started moving from one boat to another, collected around 175 participants of Global Sumud Flotilla into a prison ship, where we were asked to stay inside cargo containers that did not have any conditions. People were violently removed from their ships into the prison ship. Ships were left floating in the sea. One of the ships, called Tam Tam, participants were left inside the ship with a broken engine, under the danger of drowning, without being provided any help or support, and were rescued by Open Arms.

Then, transporting us to the prison ship, people were violently strip-searched, handcuffed and then pushed inside the cargo containers. Then some of us were being picked up slowly. It was very difficult to know what is exactly what’s happening, but it was in the middle of the international waters. Me and Thiago were transported into a different military ship and then taken to occupied Palestine, arrived there on Saturday morning, where the police was waiting for us. And then, directly we were taken into the Shabak, which is the Israeli secret service, and started interrogation until Friday, a few days ago, when we were informed that investigation is being closed and that we will be deported.

When they introduced themselves, they introduced themselves as the unit that is responsible for investigations around Gaza. I had eight investigators questioning me on different occasions on their continuous version of story that they have the right to go into 700 nautical miles, that Gaza is not being besieged, that there is no blockade, that there is no genocide, that there is no military occupation, that settlers are normal citizens, even if they move around with guns and they attack people. One of the — actually, one of the investigators told me that “You should fight against other types of occupation, like, you know, Tenerife.” I told him, “Well, there are no protests in Tenerife.” And they said, “They killed them all. We tried to do this in Gaza. We only managed to kill 100,000, but we have finished all our bombs, and that’s the number that we have managed to kill.”

We were hearing, every day, the screams of other Palestinians who were being tortured inside this investigation center, all the time, during the day, during the night, deprivation of sleep, transportation to the court.

It has been a process to see how Israel is evolving with impunity. I think they are acting in a way that we could expect next interception to be at the shores of Ibiza or the shores of Majorca, where there is no limit for the crime that they are willing to take, the risks that they are willing to put people in, just to justify a false accusation that they have nothing to prove and they have — they don’t need even to explain why they are doing this, illegally kidnapping all of us.

So, what we really have to be concerned of, if we have somebody with a double nationality, that we have seen such a huge mobilization politically, and we have seen the media coverage and the social mobilizations everywhere. Imagine how Palestinians are being treated. Imagine the violations that people from Palestine are receiving. I mean, we heard about packs of dogs that are being trained to rape —

SAIF ABUKESHEK: Just to say that the testimonies that we are receiving from the Palestinian prisoners who are being released is nothing compared to the experience that we have — the continuous rape of women, of men, the continuous violations, the administrative detention. This is a government that is acting this way for so long.

SAIF ABUKESHEK: And it is about time that the international community acts. Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Saif Abukeshek, Spanish and Swedish national of Palestinian origin, speaking to us from Turkey. That does it for our show. We’ll be in Austin and Houston this weekend.