Wong agrees to meet flotilla women who allege rape by Israeli soldiers
DFAT admits Australian officials heard ‘screams’ of abused activists
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has agreed to personally meet with Australian members of the Global Sumud Flotilla who allege they were raped, sexually assaulted and tortured by Israeli soldiers and prison guards.
Correspondence between the flotilla participants and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and seen by Deepcut, reveals the department initially declined the activists’ request to meet with Wong and the prime minister, instead offering them a meeting with DFAT First Assistant Secretary for Consular and Crisis Management Elizabeth McGregor.
“We need you to sit with us, look us in the eye and hear our stories of the abuse that we suffered at the hands of the Israelis,” the activists’ initial request reads.
“Australian women need an end to all forms of sexual violence and we need you to take a stand.”
Participants allege they were subjected to horrific abuse by Israel Defense Force soldiers and guards at Ktzi’ot prison, including rape, beatings, being forcibly injected with an “unknown substance” and having “guns inserted inside them”.
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The activists, who held a press conference in Canberra last week, are calling on Australia to demand an independent investigation into allegations of sexual violence against flotilla participants, expel the Israeli ambassador, and commit to enforcing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
In October, Deepcut reported that Australian participants in an earlier flotilla alleged similar mistreatment while in Ktzi’ot, including that Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, personally threatened to “gas” them.
Australian officials admit hearing ‘screams’ of activists
Flotilla participants allege they were punched, kicked, elbowed in the head, thrown to the ground and stomped on by Israeli soldiers — and within earshot of Australian consular officials — while being processed for deportation at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.
Speaking before the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee on Thursday, McGregor said that consular officials did not see the Australians being abused, as “there was a screen that was erected” in their line of sight. While she admitted that officials did hear screams, “it was a very noisy [and] crowded environment” and the screen “prevented them from seeing what was beyond the barrier”.
In a letter to Greens Senator David Shoebridge on Thursday – and seen by Deepcut – Wong admitted the Israeli government actively prevented Australian diplomats from helping the imprisoned activists.
“While Australian consular officials did all they could to provide consular assistance to Australian participants in Israel, including travelling to Ktzi’ot prison twice and attending the airport where the participants were deported, Israel refused consular [officials’ requests] to provide access,” the letter states.
Participants also criticised DFAT for claiming in statements to media outlets that flotilla activists released by Israel did not need medical attention “beyond the provision of basic first aid supplies”.
Wong refuses to demand independent investigation
Wong and DFAT officials repeatedly declined to answer questions from independent Senator David Pocock during Senate estimates on whether the government would push for an external investigation headed by the UN or a similar international body, rather than an internal investigation conducted by the Israeli government.
“Our preference would always be for an independent investigation… but we’re not the ones who are able to determine what that investigation is,” Wong said. “I would rather have an investigation that is transparent than no investigation and so we need to keep pressing for that.”
Wong’s refusal to commit to an independent investigation led to a heated exchange between Wong and Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who accused the government of “[letting] the perpetrators of these heinous crimes investigate themselves”.
“What you have done is ask Israel, the criminals, to investigate their own crimes. This is what you are doing,” Faruqi told Wong.
“You’ve done nothing to support these women.”
Flotilla participant Juliet Lamont, who alleges she was raped by an Israeli soldier, told SBS last week that she wanted Wong to publicly speak about the abuse flotilla activists had endured, even if it meant disclosing distressing details.
“Something as barbaric as this needs to be talked about at every single moment and ordinary Australians need to know what happened,” she told SBS.
‘Widespread Israeli sexual violence’ against Palestinians
In May, the New York Times published an essay detailing “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against [Palestinian] men, women and even children by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards”.
The report is based on interviews with 14 Palestinians — including those who were children at the time of their assaults — who described being gang-raped by Israeli guards with metal batons and carrots; guards sexually assaulting them while forcing their heads into toilets; zip-tying their genitals; and being raped by Israeli police dogs.
In a May press release, the Israeli embassy in Canberra called flotilla participants “professional provocateurs“ advancing an “orchestrated political campaign that serves the interests of Hamas”.
“The provocateurs were neither tortured nor raped. Such claims are entirely baseless and are intended solely to advance the provocateurs’ smear campaign against Israel,” the embassy claimed.
“While claims of abuse have not been substantiated, some participants have been photographed on stretchers, posing as injured. They then reveal miraculous recovery, posing in other photos looking very healthy.”
Israeli ambassador Hillel Newman also dismissed the claims, telling the ABC’s 7.30 in May that there had “been no sexual attacks of any kind against the flotilla people” and called the flotilla a “provocation”.
DFAT did not answer questions sent by Deepcut, instead providing a statement that “Australia has condemned the degrading treatment of flotilla participants by Israeli authorities shown in publicly available footage”.
“We are also deeply alarmed by reports of mistreatment of Australians while in detention. Australia has made representations to Israel about these allegations and conveyed our expectation that they be urgently investigated.”
Listen to the latest episode of Deepthink, where Antoun Issa discusses his new book, Rebirth: A Love Story from the Depths of War, with Readings Books. The wide-ranging conversation delves into Beirut’s history, enduring Arab resistance, and interpreting Kahlil Gibran and the purpose of life.
I voted for Labor at the last election primarily to keep Dutton out of the Lodge. Never again. When will we get a government that represents its own citizens above the interests of a foreign country? My respect for Penny Wong has evaporated. She double speaks meaningless gobbledygook when she should be castigating the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Labor, Liberal, One Nation. God help us. Our politicians won’t.
Australia and the world ostracized South Africa over apartheid. I think we even stopped playing cricket with them. But Israel is like a cancer, affecting whole body-politics. We host an ambassador, we're OK with a visit by Israel's President, and our government thinks people who are distressed by the genocide are the enemy. The main media outlets are a lost cause, of course, but the disease has occupied the ABC and the public service. How weak do you have to be to deplore only the 'publicly available' evidence, the one thing you can't deny? Time to smash that looking glass..