Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong has condemned Israel over its treatment of Australian activists part of a humanitarian flotilla seeking to bring aid to Gaza, describing the actions as “unacceptable” and saying she believes the activitsts’ allegations that they were sexually assaulted and beaten by Israeli soldiers after being detained.
On Thursday, during Senate estimates, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi recounted allegations made by some of the Australians detained by Israel before asking Minister Wong: “Do you believe these women?”
Minister Wong replied: “My principled position is to always believe women when allegations of sexual assault are made.”
“Those allegations are terrible,” Wong told the estimates committee. “They are horrific. The treatment is unacceptable. And I express my empathy to those women to whom that was done.”
Minister Wong said the Australian government had conveyed concerns to Israel over its treatment of flotilla activists and Israel’s refusal to allow Australian diplomats access to those detained.
The Global Sumud Flotilla is a global movement aimed at breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza and delivering humanitarian supplies, including food, medical care and baby formula, to the war-torn Gaza Strip. Eleven Australians were part of the flotilla, which was stopped illegally by Israeli naval ships. The civilians onboard were detained and deported, with some alleging violent abuse, including beatings and rape. Israel has denied the allegations.
On Thursday, Senator Faruqi detailed the disturbing accounts made by three of the flotilla participants, whom she described as “brave humanitarians”, including Juliet Lamont, Neve O’Connor and Violet CoCo.
“Neve O’Connor…has said she was abused, physically beaten and sexually humiliated,” Senator Faruqi said. “She says ‘I had my hands pinned behind my back while being repeatedly kneed in the spine, kneed in the thighs’.”
“Violet CoCo has told us that she was held at gunpoint, stripped of her clothes and pushed into a shipping container where she was beaten, kicked and sexually assaulted before being thrown into a prison yard.”
“Juliet Lamont, has said she was sexually assaulted and beaten, cable tied and had so much water thrown in her face that at one point she thought she was going to drown,” She says ‘they wrenched my trousers and underwear down and I was raped by one of the soldiers. My daughter was syringed with an unknown substance. Other people had guns inserted inside them’.
Lamont was one of several activists who spoke to the media upon their return to Australia last month.
“I was dragged into a darkened container ship on a prison boat, I was sexually assaulted, I was beaten, and that was just the beginning of four days of absolute hell,” she said. “I’ve looked into the eyes of the most soulless people in the universe, and nothing came back. These people need to be stopped.”
Yesterday, Lamont and two other colleagues held a press conference at Parliament House, seeking a meeting with the foreign minister and prime minister.
“I’m really glad that Penny [Wong] recently said that she believes us,” Lamont said.
“I think the extension of that is she needs to meet with us, she needs to hear our testimony, and she needs to sanction Israel. What other country would be allowed to rape and torture eleven ordinary citizens from this country and get away with it?”
“Something as barbaric as this needs to be talked about at every single moment, and ordinary Australians need to know what happened,” she said.
Minister Wong said on Thursday that her office was in direct communication with some of the Australian women who had been aboard the flotilla.
“My view is that … women should be believed in these allegations, which are confronting and distressing, should be dealt with respectfully and seriously, and that is what we will do: I don’t intend, in this forum, to go into these issues any further.”
On Thursday, she was also asked by Senator David Pocock if she had sought an independent probe into the allegations.
“I have raised this matter directly with my Israeli counterpart, officials have made high-level representations to Israel, and conveyed my expectation — Australia’s expectation — that these allegations be urgently investigated,” she said.
“We would want the most thorough investigation possible but we’re not the ones who are able to determine what that investigation is.”
Last week, the Israeli embassy in Australia issued a statement saying the flotilla was “organised for provocation rather than humanitarian concern”, and alleging some on board were “well-known agitators”.
Last month, far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video showing him insulting and taunting detained members of the flotilla carrying aid for Palestinians.
Minister Wong condemned the video, calling it “shocking and unacceptable”.