Irish flotilla member recounts detention ordeal: ‘We were not human to them’

An Irish doctor detained after Israeli forces intercepted a protest flotilla this week says she was held in conditions she likened to a “horror of a concentration camp”.

Dr Margaret Connolly, sister of President Catherine Connolly, was among 14 Irish citizens and 430 activists detained by Israeli authorities after the vessels were stopped at sea on Monday.

The group had been travelling with the Global Sumud Flotilla, an effort aimed at breaching the blockade of the Palestinian territory and bringing aid to people in Gaza.

Videos of the aftermath circulated online on Wednesday, showing some protesters kneeling in tightly packed rows with their hands bound behind their backs.

The activists arrived in Turkey last night after being deported from Israel. The Irish members of the group are due back in Ireland tomorrow.

An infographic traces the route of the Global Sumud Flotilla and the dates on which it was intercepted

Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime, Dr Connolly said she and the other activists were “kidnapped and abducted” and “held against our will on a warship”.

“My colleagues experienced 35 fractures, five head injuries,” she said.

“There was 15 sexual assaults, eye injuries, ear injuries. A huge number of laser injuries. People experienced broken feet. There was bullets shot at people’s feet.”

Dr Connolly, a GP based in Sligo, said many of those detained were left with back and shoulder injuries.

“We were all bent down like hogs and kept in this position for hours,” she said.

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She said many of the detained activists suffered fractures and “screamed and howled in pain all night long”, adding that no pain relief or medical kits were provided to treat their injuries.

“I want to tell you, what I saw … people in agony, people freezing and cold with hypothermia, no clothes, drenched clothes,” Dr Connolly said.

She said requests for water were refused, while food came in the form of what she described as “disgusting” bread rolls thrown at them.

According to Dr Connolly, detainees were denied toilet paper and medicines, while women were refused sanitary towels.

“They laughed at us and they thought you should have ‘feffin’ thought about this before you came here,” she said.

She said guards aimed guns at the group and looked down on them “like we were filth”.

“We were not allowed to look up. We stared at the ground the whole time. They kicked you if you looked up.

“We were not human to them.”

She added: “I want to just say, if they do this to Europeans in international waters, how dare they.”

Dr Connolly also condemned the Dáil vote earlier this week against legislation that would have imposed sanctions on Israel.

“How dare the Irish Government allow this to happen,” she said.

“How dare they vote no to sanctions? It is utterly barbaric.”

Flotilla member describes ‘sheer brutality’ when detained

An Irish man who was also aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla said those involved now feel both relief and a growing “realisation of what has happened”.

Tom Deasy said the full Irish group plans to travel home together and hopes to arrive back tomorrow afternoon.

He said the ordeal was relentless and chaotic, and that today was the first chance they had to begin processing what he called a “scary” experience.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One, Mr Deasy said: “Trying to put it into words is probably impossible. We knew there were risks going into it. We knew we would likely face the IOF but the sheer brutality that we witnessed was something that I never thought in my life that I, or anyone I knew, would be put into that position.”

Global Sumud Flotilla member Tom Deasy was on the first boat intercepted

Mr Deasy said the Israeli Defence Force showed “aggression” from the moment the vessels were boarded. He said the boat he was on was the first to be intercepted on Monday.

“I got to the [prison] ship. I got a rifle bashed into my back and that was the first realisation of just how brutal these were. But it only escalated from that point on.

“The sheer violence and aggression used on people for no reason was indescribable,” he said, adding that he suffered a black eye and was punched in the head.

He said the group were stripped of their clothes, left exposed to the cold, and after their passports and nationalities were checked, taken into a container.

Mr Deasy claimed that was “where the beatings happened”, saying “that is where pretty much everyone on the ship got beaten”.

He said the most difficult part was hearing the assaults unfold around them.

“It echoed throughout the yard,” he said. Mr Deasy claimed that only 10 people said they were not beaten.

He said many of those who joined the flotilla are still struggling with the trauma of what happened.

(L-R) Louise McCormack, Tom Deasy, Fra Hughes and Mikey Cullen were among those detained

He said the prospect of flying home to their families was “very reassuring”.

“The fact that we came here, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and the 9,500 Palestinians that are held in captivity that go through that every single day just for being Palestinian. The fact that we knew, there probably will be a hope that we will get out and be released … they have no hope,” he said.

“And now they are facing a death sentence. We feel relief for ourselves, but guilt that those people see no end in sight.”

Mr Deasy said medical reports detailing injuries, along with accounts of crimes allegedly witnessed, including torture treatments, were given to Turkish authorities so they could be recorded as part of a formal complaint.

“People have to be held accountable, not just for the treatment of us … just because we are westerners. The fact it took to get to this level. That is the most horrific part of it for us,” he said.

He said one of the first questions he asked concerned the vote on sanctions against Israel held in the Dáil on Wednesday.

“To know that the Irish Government voted not to put sanctions on the Israeli regime, while we were getting tortured in a prison ship, in the Mediterranean Sea, for multiple days … that is just unacceptable for us,” he said.

He called it a failure by governments across the board, “especially the Irish Government”.

“That was the worst news I could have stepped off that plane [to hear],” he said.

Mr Deasy also said the Occupied Territories Bill is a “watered down version of what it originally used to be”, adding that it will not make a difference.