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- [00:01]
A
Who says renting can't feel like home? Make your rental feel like yours. It all starts with one scroll. Download TikTok to discover easy home decor ideas.
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B
When you're in it, you're, you're going like, this couldn't possibly get any worse. And then it does. And so you almost can't process what happened the moment before. It's so weird. I'm sure it will take a while for everything to come back, but yeah, it feels a bit sort of disjointed at the moment.
- [00:37]
A
This week, seven Australians returned home after being detained by Israel. They had been part of the Global Samud flotilla. More than 400 activists from 56 countries countries trying to reach Gaza by sea carrying food and medicine. Four days after they set sail from Turkey, Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla on international waters and took the passengers to Israel. Then Israel's National Security Minister, Itmar Ben gvir, released footage of detainees bound on the ground as he stood over them and taunted them. Israel says the operation was lawful and that no one was harmed. But the Australians who have now returned say they were beaten, humiliated, denied food and water and held for almost 80 hours.
- [01:32]
B
They enjoyed every moment of that. I mean, it's really hard to know, like, do they genuinely believe that we're terrorists? It's so obvious that we're not funded by Hamas, that we're, you know, teachers and mothers and doctors and journalists and ordinary people just doing this because our government are failing us.
- [01:54]
A
I'm Ruby Jones and you're listening to 7am today in part one of a two part episode filmmaker and flotilla participant Juliette Lamont on what she says happened from the moment Israeli forces reached her boat. It's Tuesday, May 26th and a warning. This story contains reference to sexual abuse. Juliet hello and welcome to 7am yeah,
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B
it's nice to be with you.
- [02:24]
A
Thank you for joining us. You, you've just arrived back home to Australia. How are you?
- [02:31]
B
It's a weird feeling. It's nice to be home, but it's also. Yeah, I mean, just knowing that Anthony Albanese hasn't really made a statement, having heard our testimony is disappointing. But yeah, we will definitely bang the drum and make sure that he. Yeah, just deals with some of the things that we have been through and that highlight what Palestinians go through every day.
- [02:53]
A
Well, let's talk about what happened. So 12 days ago you set out, you were one of more than 400 people on the Global Smud flotilla bound for Gaza to attempt to deliver aid that was intercepted by the idf after just four Days. Could you take us back to that moment when Israeli forces reached the boat?
- [03:12]
B
Yeah, I mean it was bizarre because there hasn't been, in the 20 year history of flotillas, there's never been an interception that's been in the broad daylight. So we were not anticipating that. And that was really brazen. And so it was kind of weird because it was almost like cosplay soldiers because normally when I've interacted with them it's stealth and it's dark and they are really frightening. But we got to see through the balaclavas, like 18 year old kids who are really frightened with lots of weaponry and lots of bravado, but also just like these are children, these are brainwashed kids who are doing this. So that was an extra dimension to what I've, you know, I experienced last year when I was on the flotilla. Yeah, we saw them coming up, you know, we, we heard like maybe we were the 15th boat, I think out of 52 boats that were intercepted. So we knew that it was coming. We hadn't anticipated it would happen quite so quickly. They come up to the side of the boat, we put it on autopilot and just basically put the motor on at, you know, like floor depths. So we're going eight nautical miles on autopilot, refused to stop the boat. And then so they opened fire above our heads. And so we knew that they meant business. There was seven of us on the boat and we discussed what the red line would be when we would acquiesce to the IOF's threats. And yeah, shooting above our heads was definitely a red line. So that's when we decided, okay, they mean business.
- [04:39]
A
And so what did you do?
- [04:41]
B
Okay, well, they boarded the boat. We refused to tell them who the captain is. That's what we do in our training because the captain normally is tortured and is met with more violence because they want to get information out of them. I think maybe we kind of, we were a little bit stubborn. We didn't stop the boat for a while. We refused to pull down the sails. But yeah, then. Yeah, then what happened? Yeah, then I think that was a kind of collective feeling. We decided that we'd do it with eye contact. And one of our Malaysian delegates who was on the boat gave the kind of, you know, the nod of like, I think we should probably tow the line now. So they took control of the boat and then they took us to a really large prison boat that was used last flotilla and we were all dragged one by one onto that. So it was a hectic transportation to the prison boat. And then it. Yeah, it. It got worse. I was dragged up, cable tied, thrown on the deck. They shackled my ankles. And then I think maybe they knew that I had been on the last flotilla because they were using my first name. As soon as I heard that they knew my name was Juliet, I kind of knew I was in trouble. And then some of the people on my boat were kind of dragged away. There was a lot of slapping, a lot of shouting. Balaclava men. It was tense straight away. But then when I hit the deck, they used a lot of water. They sort of did this waterboarding technique where I was lying down and my hands were behind my back and my ankles were in cuffs and they put so much water under my face that I was starting to not be able to breathe. And I thought that I was going to drown. So that was kind of. Yeah, welcome. Welcome to the prison boat. Yeah. And then I was dragged to a really dark container ship. And they said, welcome to Israel was the first thing that they said. And then somebody says something like, you're gonna really, really enjoy this. And then I was at the, you know, at the entrance of a shipping container that was dark. I was dragged through. I was kicked numerous times. There was five men in there. They still had balaclavas on, but you could sort of see the silhouette of, you know, how big they were. They were definitely all males. I was kicked. I was punched in the face. I was sexually assaulted. They pulled down my trousers and, yeah, sexually assaulted me in the most horrific manner. One guy, which is so weird and so kind of infantile, this was all happening, was sort of like pulling at my hair, like somebody would do, like in the playground of a primary school. It was just weird, just constantly humiliating you, you know, not only your body, but there was this sort of, like, one had an American accent and it's, you know. Yeah, it's kind of like, you know, do you like it? Like this girl? Just really gross. Like, they were really enjoying it. And then the last punch, which drew a lot of blood and I had a cut lip. Then I was sort of thrown out into an open area, which was a quadrangle where we sort of lived for the next two days. And I saw that my daughter was there, which had been a really big fear of mine, that Isla would. Would be met with, you know, a similar. Similar fight. And maybe by. Maybe there was 50 people when I was sort of spat out into that open air sort of prison space. Yeah. And then the next hours, we heard the howls and screams and bashings of everybody else that came on that boat. And that probably was until it was dark. So yeah, that was day one of, of the prison boat. It was absolute hell. But as everybody says, imagine what happens to Palestinians. It was obvious that there had been orders that they weren't allowed to kill us. It's kind of incredible that no one died, but they enjoyed it. We're trying to, you know, stand in solidarity and highlight what's happening to the most vulnerable people on the planet. And we're being terrorized by the most evil incarnation of a human being that exists. It's. Yeah, they have no soul. They have no soul whatsoever.
- [09:10]
A
Still to come, we ask Juliet about that vision of Israeli Minister Ben gvir. Can I ask you about that footage that I think everyone has seen now of, of Ben GVIR taunting the detainees? Were you there when that happened? Do you remember that moment?
- [09:38]
B
No, I think that was, that was either before or after I got processed to Ashdod. But it was really similar to everything that we'd gone through. I knew that he was around. He was there when I on the flotilla last year. He did a similar thing. He came, he followed us from the port to Kessiot Prison. He said that we were baby killers. He said that, what do we say? Baby killers, Jew haters. And he was going to gas us. Which, you know, the sort of co opting of that Holocaust narrative is just so sick really when you think about. Yeah, I mean it's just bizarre. But yeah, I wasn't surprised. But you know, I'm sort of. It's almost that the undoing of really, really arrogant men throughout history can be through their hubris. And the fact that he was so gloating to release that footage and boasting about us being cable tied and seeing us in those stress positions and hitting my friend Kat, now she's an Irish organizer. Yeah, it's going to be their downfall or it's the beginning of a shift because now, you know, the world gets a tiny glimpse into the horror that is daily lives for Palestinians. So yeah, he shouldn't have uploaded that footage. Really, really not a good mood. But it's good for us, it's good for Palestinians.
- [10:57]
A
So what happened then after you were taken to Ashdod?
- [11:01]
B
Okay, well, like just really quickly, even before that, you know, you've got people with broken bones, tasers to the face. My daughter Ayla, she, you know, thankfully wasn't raped. That was something that I kept. I'm not really religious, but I did pray for every God or any, you know, sentient being that was around that she wouldn't be raped. But she was injected with some unknown substance. Three people were with syringes. We're gonna have to get a checked out. We got a checkout in Turkey and got blood tests done there.
- [11:25]
A
Did those tests show anything? Do you know what happened?
- [11:28]
B
Well, we, you know, we. We went there and the Turkish government, even though it was really good that they flew us from Israel to Turkey and, you know, they fed and they clothed us and took our testimonies, they didn't release their reports, the medical reports. So I don't know what that's about. So we might have to go through that all again, which we'll do now that we're in sy. Yeah, we were sort of like herded. You know, they'd keep coming in and they'd go, you know, behind the black line. And then they would open fire with rubber bullets. Stun guns, like sort of flash bombs that would like really some. One of my friends eardrum exploded and he's having an operation. It looks like he's deaf in one ear from the sound of those things that they sort of shoot you with. And another, another friend got one of those rubber bullets to her ankle. So she's broken her ankle. This is like direct hits. They're only, I don't know, maybe 20 meters away or something like that, saying that they're going to kill us. We're freezing cold. No medication. I asked for blood pressure medication. Wasn't allowed any of that stuff. You know, they constantly threatened us, saying that they wanted to kill us. Then it was Ashdod, which, yeah, was awful. Again, cable tied. Again, dragged. My feet were sort of like. Put me in a stress position, you know, happened. People got dislocated shoulders from this. My legs, I'm not very tall. My legs were about a meter off the ground. They were ridiculing me. They were saying how small I looked. They were going, small, small, small, small. I mean, it's so infantile as well as terrifying because you know that they can kill you. And then I was stripped of all my clothes. Sexually assaulted again by two women. Humiliated. The handcuffs go back on, the chains around your legs get back on. Which means that when you try and walk and they're pushing your head down with the grip, that's, you know, the most painful thing. You're actually falling over, you can't walk. It's really difficult to walk when you've got change around your ankles. Strip search yet again, same thing. Happened, groping, telling me that I'm an animal, that I support terrorists, that I should go to Gaza and get raped by Arabs. Like just the most disgusting things. And then. And then what happened? Yeah, and then we're all, yeah, we have to sign documents saying that we will never come back to Israel. And I said, this is not Israel. I don't recognize that. This is, you know, a country that has a right to exist. This is an apartheid state. You're a terrorist nation. And then, of course, when you say that, you're punished further. And this is, you know, in a kind of port, immigration kind of situation where you're seeing this happening to hundreds of. Of your friends, then. Yeah, put into a prison van. And they're really good at. Once you go into a van, you wait there for two hours. When the aircon's on, it's really freezing. So it's kind of just everything that they can do to make everything as uncomfortable and everything as like, sort of humiliating and undignified as possible is what you will encounter. Yeah. And then, you know, off to Kesiot Prison, which I was familiar with from last October. Yeah.
- [14:36]
A
And, yeah, as you say, this isn't the first time that you've been on a flotilla. It's not the first time you've been detained. Tell me why you decided to go back.
- [14:43]
B
Because things aren't changing and, you know, the pretend ceasefire and the border peace and Albanese sort of changing his language around how much we arm Israel. It just felt like Gaza was off the map again and the global community weren't, Weren't really. Weren't really looking in their direction. And so I do know that, that when people have privileged passports and people with white skin, it's really, really horrific. But the reality is that the world cares more about what happens to my body and my daughter's body and my friend's body than Palestinian brown bodies. And that is the racist reality. And, you know, so I knew that. I knew that I'd be able to bear it. Like, I feel really, really in shell shock. I feel really heartbroken. But I also feel like if it can go in any way to change the way that Palestinians have to live, especially the 10,000 people in prison, 350 of them are children with no charge, then, yeah, it's worth it because I couldn't really live with myself if I didn't try to help.
- [15:52]
A
Talia, thank you so much for your time.
- [15:55]
B
No worries.
- [15:55]
A
Cheers. 7am has contacted the Israeli embassy for comment. This was part one of a two, part episode. In the next episode, we look at how a team of lawyers is taking statements documenting evidence, building a case against Israel over its treatment of those on board the flotilla.
- [16:22]
C
There is an option to file a complaint at the un, especially when it comes to torture, arbitrary detention. We could put in complaints to the icc. We will explore every avenue, but at this stage, we're really just focused on making sure that we collect the evidence and we tag it and we preserve it so that we could use it for the future.
- [16:47]
A
That's in your feed now.