Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has described how she was beaten, threatened, starved and deliberately humiliated during Israeli detention following the Global Sumud Flotilla’s attempt to deliver aid to Gaza.
Thunberg spent five brutal days in Israel’s notorious Ketziot Prison — the country’s largest detention centre — infamous for its human rights abuses and mistreatment of prisoners.
In an interview given to the local media outlet Aftonbladet, published on Wednesday, she recounted her treatment and that of fellow flotilla activists, describing how Israeli forces were “beating, kicking”, and issuing “threats of being gassed in cages.”
Thunberg was among 170 activists who were detained, abused, and humiliated as they attempted to sail into Gaza to break Israel’s years-long blockade on food and medical aid.
However, due to her high-profile and outspoken status as one of the world’s most prominent humanitarian activists, she was singled out and paraded by Israeli forces as a prized capture.
“This is not about me or the others from the flotilla. There are thousands of Palestinians, hundreds of whom are children, who are being held without trial right now, and many of them are most likely being tortured,” Thunberg told Aftonbladet.
Flotilla vessels seized – the start of the abuse
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Thunberg detailed the entire ordeal, beginning with the interception of her vessel, when men with covered faces boarded the boat with automatic weapons pointed at their faces.
They were then forced to sit in a circle without moving while the boat was taken to the Ashdod port, around 20 hours later.
Thunberg was singled out instantly as they pointed to her and shouted, “You first, come on!”
As soon as she got off the boat, they pulled her to the ground and threw an Israeli flag over her in an instant act of humiliation.
Several witnesses to the event described how everything went “from zero to a hundred” at that moment, as the violence continued to escalate against the activists.
“They dragged me to the opposite side from where the others were sitting, and I had the flag around me the whole time. They hit and kicked me,” Thunberg described.
Israeli forces also taunted her with derogatory names in Swedish, such as “Lilla hora” (“Little whore”) and “Hora Greta” (“Whore Greta”).
“The flag was placed so that it would touch me. When it fluttered and touched me, they shouted ‘Don’t touch the flag!’ and kicked me in the side. After a while, my hands were tied with cable ties, very tightly. A bunch of guards lined up to take selfies with me while I was sitting like that.”
Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir enters
Thunberg went on to describe how far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered, looking down on all the prisoners, shouting:
“You are Hamas. You are terrorists. You want to kill Jewish babies!”
Any detained activist who shouted back in defiance to Ben-Gvir was “thrown to the ground and beaten.”
Every time she tried to raise her head to watch the beatings, she was also kicked by the guard standing next to her.
From there, the abuse and taunting from Israeli guards intensified further as activists were starved and denied any clean water for days.
“It was so hot, like 40 degrees. We begged the whole time: ‘Can we have water? Can we have water?’ In the end, we screamed. The guards walked in front of the bars the whole time, laughing and holding up their water bottles. They threw the bottles with water in them into the bins in front of us,” Thunberg told Aftonbladet.
‘Everything they do is extremely violent’
The activists were eventually placed in cages outdoors in groups of 60 under the blistering heat, still with no water.
“When people fainted, we banged on the cages and asked for a doctor. Then the guards came and said, ‘We’re going to gas you.’ It was standard for them to say that. They held up a gas cylinder and threatened to press it against us.”
Many activists were in need of medical attention at this point, but the Israeli guards ignored them and laughed it off.
“The guards have no empathy or humanity… Everything they do is extremely violent. People’s medications – heart, cancer, insulin – were thrown away in front of their eyes,” she said.
Thunberg also noted seeing bullet holes and bloodstains on prison walls, alongside messages carved by Palestinian prisoners held before her.
Swedish Foreign Ministry failed to act
One of the main points of the interview was to expose the inability and failure of not only the Swedish Foreign Ministry, but also those of other countries, to step in to protect their detained citizens.
“They didn’t do anything… just said: ‘Our job is to listen to you. We are here and you are entitled to consular support,’” Thunberg said.
Aftonbladet has spoken to three other members of the flotilla who largely confirmed what Greta Thunberg said, each having experienced various forms of abuse and humiliation.
She also reiterated that the focus of her interview with Aftonbladet should remain on Gaza, not the mistreatment of the flotilla activists.
“What we have been through is only a small, small part of what Palestinians have experienced.”
