'Shut the f--k up or we'll gas you' – Australian flotilla activists allege direct threats from Israeli minister
Australians aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla claim Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted them in captivity
Australian activists who took part in the Global Sumud Flotilla claim Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, personally threatened to “gas” them.
Speaking on Wednesday at a press conference, the four Australians – Surya McEwen, Juliet Lamont, Abubakir Rafiq and Cameron Tribe – shared shocking stories of sexual assault, physical violence, threats of murder and degrading treatment at the hands of Israeli soldiers while they were held in an Israeli prison.
‘Shut the fuck up or we’ll gas you’
The four Australians were imprisoned by Israel after joining the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet of more than 40 civilian vessels that aimed to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip in September. More than 500 people from 44 countries joined the fleet, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, French politician Rima Hassan, former mayor of Barcelona Ada Colau and Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham.
The Flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy in late September as it approached Gaza, with its participants arrested and jailed in Ktzi’ot, an Israeli prison in the Naqab desert notorious for human rights abuses against Palestinian inmates.
Reports soon emerged of Israeli soldiers physically abusing, injuring and torturing Flotilla activists, denying them food, water, sleep and medicine, and forcing them to kneel for hours at a time while blindfolded and zip-tied. Several activists claimed that Israeli soldiers dragged Thunberg along the ground and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag.
While Israel has officially denied the allegations, Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – who filmed himself taunting more than 80 Flotilla activists as they were detained – said in a statement that he “was proud that we treat the ‘flotilla activists’ as supporters of terrorism”.
“Anyone who supports terrorism is a terrorist and deserves the conditions of terrorists,” Ben-Gvir said.
‘Fingers were put inside me’
Lamont, a documentary filmmaker, alleges that Ben-Gvir personally threatened to “gas” more than 50 female Flotilla activists.
“There were about 50 of us women in a cage outside Ktzi’ot,” Lamont told Deepcut. “Ben-Gvir arrives with about ten TV cameras and lights, and starts berating us, saying we’re terrorists, we’re baby killers, we hate Jews. It was like a circus.”
“A couple of us spoke back – maybe we shouldn’t have – and then he said ‘shut the fuck up or we’ll gas you’.”
Lamont also alleges that Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted her when she and other activists were forcibly disembarked at Ashdod port.
“I was taken behind a curtain. My clothes were taken off. Fingers were put inside me, my breasts were groped, my backside was pinched,” Lamont says. “That was just the beginning of multiple humiliations and invasions. As a survivor of child sexual abuse, it is unfathomable to me that, as a woman of 54, that could happen to me again when I went to Israel.”
“I feel like I don’t really want to talk about my personal experience, because it’s not a drop in the ocean compared to what Palestinians have been experiencing during this genocide. But the things we endured are real.”
Allegations of widespread abuse in Israeli prisons
McEwen, a care worker from Mullumbimby on NSW’s north coast, suffered a dislocated shoulder and a head injury while in Ktzi’ot. However, he is at pains to point out that Ktzi’ot is a place “where Palestinian prisoners are routinely tortured and raped to death by Israel”.
Palestinians formerly held in Ktzi’ot and other Israeli prisons have long shared stories of violent sexual assault at the hands of Israeli soldiers and prison guards, as well as torture, beatings, deprivation, starvation and ritual humiliation.
Palestinians released from Israeli prisons routinely show clear signs of mistreatment, including severe injuries, dangerous weight loss and skin diseases. A United Nations report in August 2024 found that “at least” 53 Palestinians had died in the preceding ten months from “widespread abuse, torture, sexual assault and rape amid atrocious inhumane conditions” in Israeli prisons.
“A lot of the media just want to ask about us and not acknowledge the humanity of the Palestinians at all,” McEwen told Deepcut. “I’m happy to tell my own story, but it pales into significance against that.”
McEwen recounted how two Israeli soldiers sexually assaulted him while he waited to be loaded onto a prison transport.
“They were patting me down and looking in my underwear. One of them pulled out his pistol and put it to my temple and told me he was gonna kill me while the other guy pulled my underwear down and started playing with my genitals,” McEwen says. “They weren’t trying to seriously hurt me; they were just trying to humiliate me, show me they could do anything.”
Israeli soldiers also dislocated McEwen’s left shoulder and broke two of his ribs. Others, who received the activists at Ashdod, “made a big show” of taking off McEwen’s Hindu mala prayer beads, “throwing them on the ground and spitting on them”.
However, McEwen says one of the Flotilla’s organisers – who he declined to name – suffered worse treatment.
“One of my close friends was taken from the cell out into the desert with a hood over his head. They dug a grave for him and put him in it and put guns to his head, telling him they were going to find his daughter and kill her,” McEwen claims.
‘I’m going to have a lot of fun with you in prison’
Abubakir Rafiq, a content creator from Sydney, alleged he was threatened while in an interrogation room.
“A very large man, maybe 6’1 or 6’2, slammed his hand on the table and looked me up and down with a predatory look on his face,” Rafiq said. “He licked his lips and said, ‘I’m going to have a lot of fun with you in prison’.”
“When he said this, especially in a state where soldiers and prison guards commit sexual violence against Palestinians every day, my first thought was, ‘I’m going to be raped by this man’. Never in my life have I felt as I did then and there. I still remember his face.”
Despite being shaken by the incident, Rafiq says he is not surprised at his treatment in Ktzi’ot.
“Israel is a state where they have debates on live TV over whether soldiers and prison guards have the right to rape Palestinian prisoners. This is what the state of Israel is,” he says.
Rafiq recalled glimpsing two Palestinians being escorted across the prison compound by Israeli soldiers from the window of the cell he shared with roughly 80 other activists.
“Their hands and feet were chained, and they were blindfolded. When I was released, the first thing I thought was: ‘What about those two Palestinians? What happened to them?’” Rafiq says.
While Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinians as part of the recent ceasefire agreement, it still holds nearly 10,000 Palestinians in its prisons, according to figures collated by Israeli NGO HaMoked.
Another flotilla already planned
Lamont also hit out at Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong, who have made no public comment about the Australian activists held in Ktzi’ot.
“In regards to Albanese, if it had been his mother, if it had been his daughter or his sister who had been sexually assaulted and kidnapped and illegally detained in an Israeli prison, I think he might have come out with a statement,” Lamont says. “He’s said nothing.”
Despite their treatment, none of the activists expressed regret over participating in the Sumud Flotilla.
“The governments participating in this genocide are aware of how powerful movements like this are,” McEwen says. “One of the reasons they’re doing the so-called ceasefire process at the moment is because they realise the power of these global movements and they’re afraid it will lead to a situation like in South Africa, where the apartheid regime was forced to disintegrate. Now is the most important time to keep fighting and stay connected as a movement.”
“We’re already organising another [flotilla], with 200 boats this time, probably in about April,” Lamont says. “We’ve already had so many people sign up.”
The Israeli embassy in Canberra, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to questions.
Last night on this platform I had someone describe Palestinian civilians as vermin. Swiftly blocked but there is an outlook amongst enough people to provide social support for genocide.