Irish activists who arrived to Ireland late on Monday night have said they were treated with “petty and extreme cruelties” by Israeli authorities and endured “really unpleasant” conditions while they were detained.
Sarah Clancy, Thomas McCune and Donna Schwarz were the first to arrive to Ireland after being detained alongside 13 other Irish citizens following the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla last week.
The remaining activists are scheduled to arrive to Ireland by Wednesday, with the exception of Michael Fix, a dual Irish-US citizen.
A crowd of family members, friends and supporters gathered at Dublin Airport on Monday night in advance of their arrival, carrying large Palestinian flags and chanting: “Free Palestine” and “enact the Occupied Territories Bill”.
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Moments after entering the terminal’s arrivals lounge to applause and cheers, Ms Clancy said it was the “absolute pleasure of my life” to take part in the flotilla, describing it as a “moment of hope at a time of great crisis for all of us”.
Ms Clancy described recent days in Ktzi’ot Prison, a large detention facility usually used for Palestinians in the Negev desert, as “overwhelming” and “really unpleasant”, though she added she can “only imagine” the conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners.
After her vessel was intercepted and boarded last week, she said they were taken through a “PR customs process” at Ashdod port, where their possessions were confiscated and they were forced to kneel as they were filmed by Israeli authorities.
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“For example, Greta Thunberg was made to kneel beside an Israeli flag while people marched around her, taking her photo,” she said.
They were subsequently brought to Ktzi’ot Prison, she said, where they were subject to “petty and extreme cruelties”.
“Those which happened to us can only be a fraction of what happens to the people usually incarcerated there,” she said.
She said men and women were detained in separate areas, adding that her group of women had no access to mattresses, toilet paper or sanitary towels.
She said she could see these items “at the end of the corridor”, but “they just wouldn’t give them to us”.
The group also had no access to clean drinking water, she said, with those detained resorting to drinking “filthy” tap water.
“We didn’t receive food at all until the evening of the second day that we were there. The food that we did receive was absolutely awful,” she said.
The activists were also awoken on several occasions “for no reason during the night”, she said.
“I do feel outraged at the absolute criminal impunity with which they’re being allowed to act,” she said.
Thomas McCune, meanwhile, said some activists detained were denied medication such as insulin for diabetes.
He said he was housed in a cell with 10 others, all of whom were denied recreation time, clean drinking water and food, for a period, saying one French activist was “beaten” at one point.
He said he worried for those still detained and for Palestinian prisoners who “are facing a much longer and much more intense form of torture”.
Family members present, including Mr McCune’s aunt, Marie, said they “feared the worst” while they were detained.
Ms Clancy’s wife, Anne Mulhall, meanwhile, described recent days as an “incredibly worrying time”, though added that she is “incredibly proud”.
“This isn’t over, this is going to keep going, and we’re going to keep putting pressure on our governments, and I know that Sarah and other people who put their lives on the line in order to make the world and our governments sit up and pay attention, they’re not going to stop either,” she said.
