Israeli Press
Flotilla detainees tell the New York Times that Israeli guards beat them
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
Twenty-four activists detained after Israel intercepted last year's Gaza aid flotilla have described being beaten in Israeli custody, in an investigation by the New York Times that the Israeli press spent Friday arguing about rather than answering.
Twenty-two of the twenty-four told the paper they were physically assaulted, and seven were hospitalized after their release, the Israeli news site Ynet reported in its account of the piece.
The Times worked from the interviews and from medical records obtained in Australia, France, Italy and Turkey: a fractured cervical vertebra that put one activist in a neck brace for eight weeks, a fractured lower spine another attributes to kicks, a gunshot wound treated in Istanbul.
Arnaud Mein, a 34-year-old Belgian ship's captain, said he was kicked in the dark the moment he was arrested and beaten again after a pause. Malika Bahya, a 48-year-old French nurse, described listening to others. "We could hear them screaming, wailing," she said. "I couldn't bear it anymore, I tried to plug my ears."
Juliet Lamont, a 55-year-old Australian filmmaker, told the paper that five men struck her, pulled her hair and punched her ribs and face, then sexually assaulted her with an object inside a shipping container. She underwent a hospital examination in Australia days later. A Turkish participant, Majid Bagchivan, said he was shot in the hip at point-blank range.
Israeli officials denied the accounts and said the detainees were handled according to law. The article gives prominence to video of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who insisted on visiting the detainees while they were held.
Israel's response to the report arrived through its consulate in New York, where Consul General Ofir Akunis ordered staff to cancel every New York Times subscription, citing what he called blood libels, the Israeli news site Walla reported Friday.
