Six Australians Illegally Detained and Abused by Israel Have Been Released

Six Australians who were illegally apprehended by Israel late last week have been released. These Australians were taken into custody in international waters as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla: a civilian-run aid mission bound for Gaza, which is the site of a two-year-long genocide. And over these constituent’s entire abusive ordeal at the hands of Israel, top Australian ministers remained silent. 

The Israeli state apprehended 450-odd normal people from more than 40 nations over Wednesday through to Friday last week, as those abducted in international waters were attempting to breach the goods and aid blockade of Gaza, and this had seen the six Australian citizens illegally detained in the notorious Ktzi’ot prison in the Negev desert. And all six were mistreated. 

Australian man Surya McEwen, who lives on Bundjalung land in the town of Mullumbimby in NSW, appears to have been singled out by Israeli Defence Force officers for special rough treatment, which included destroying his passport, slamming his head into a concrete floor and dislocating his arm. The other five Australians have confirmed their own harsh treatment.

IDF soldiers further subjected renowned climate activist Greta Thunberg to mistreatment. Reports have troops dragging the young Swedish woman by the hair, beating her and forcing her to kiss the Israeli flag. Concerns were also being raised about the treatment Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, who was still in detention on Tuesday. However, both have now been released.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese and foreign minister Penny Wong remained silent during the entire time our citizens were in detention and despite reports of their brutalisation. This is despite the fact that international law does not permit Israel to detain foreign nationals in international waters, and it certainly doesn’t sanction their abuse and mistreatment of foreigners.

However, Albanese did issue a statement on the “2nd Anniversary of the October 7 Attack” on Tuesday. This comment without any prior in respect of an allied nation illegally detaining Australians marked a dereliction of duty, as a comment from the PM was necessitated at the very least. Yet, this lack of any mention does indicate the impunity Israel is afforded by its allies on the global stage.

Australians brutalised by Israel

Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had been in contact with the detainees and had acknowledged that they were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which involved multiple ships bound for the Gaza Strip, the location of a two-year-long Israeli mass slaughter and starvation campaign, and DFAT has further stated that it would have liked to have seen the aid delivered too.

A woman speaking on McEwen’s behalf on his Instagram account Surya Sails for Gaza on Monday, confirmed that new DFAT reports “pertaining to the treatment of Surya McEwen”, as he was being held illegally by Israel revealed that when he was arrested on the boat he was travelling on, IDF soldiers then tore up his passport, and on arrival at Ashod Port, his treatment became brutal.

The post lists the mistreatment of innocent and nonviolent Australian citizen Surya McEwen as having comprised of rougher and more forceful treatment than other detainees, being slapped, having his arm dislocated and his head slammed into the ground, as well as isolation from others, degrading and humiliating treatment and he had been subjected to sleep deprivation techniques.

The six Australians currently being illegally detained and abused by the Israeli state include Juliet Lamont, Abubakir Mohammad Rafiq, Hamish Paterson, Bianca Webb-Pullman, Cameron Tribe and McEwen. 

“We received a concerning report from DFAT about Mum’s health,” said Luca, the daughter of Juliet Lamont, who was then in Israeli custody on Monday. “She’s not receiving critical medication, along with other hostages. This could be life threatening. Mum and other hostages are being physically abused, psychologically tortured, and denied water and food.”

“It is insane to think someone like my Mum, who is the most compassionate documentary filmmaker, who always seeks to tell the truth and is the most loving person that I know, is being stripped of her legal and human rights,” said the distressed daughter of the brave Australian woman. “This is just a slither of what the Palestinian people are going through.”

Risking their lives to trigger action

The Global Sumud Flotilla was the third attempt by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) to break the siege of Gaza this year. These attempts are occurring as Israel continues to perpetrate a large-scale genocide against them, which involves mass murder and starvation that has spilled out and over into famine. This week marks two years since the genocide commenced in October 2023.

The official Gaza genocide death toll, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, is over 69,000 mainly civilian Palestinians. However, a recent study outlines that based on past data from previous war zones, the death toll is more likely to be somewhere around 680,000 people. And the scale of this livestreamed genocide is way beyond what people might have imagined two years ago.

The crew of the Global Sumud Flotilla were well-aware they could be brutalised by Israel. These regular people were also aware that they could be killed by the rogue nation, as a 2010 FFC attempt to break the blockade of Gaza was thwarted by the IDF, which boarded six vessels carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, and it shot dead nine participants, with a tenth dying later in a coma.

At the time of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, Gaza had been under varying levels of goods and movement blockade for around 16 years. The general understanding of the situation inside Gaza, where 2.3 million Palestinians were then residing, was that it was operating as the world’s “largest open-air prison”. The UN had long been warning about its depleted conditions and water supply.

The International Court of Justice ruled that Israel is plausibly perpetrating a genocide in Gaza in January last year, while it further provided a July 2024 advisory opinion on Israel’s continued occupation of the Palestinian territory since 1967 being illegal, and it added that “Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence… as rapidly as possible”.

No real issue for Canberra

The fact that the public understood that six Australians were being illegally detained and abused by Israel, yet the PM and foreign minister were not addressing this was hard to comprehend. Yet, their behaviour over the genocide has been questionable. The pair have propagated the “Israel has the right to defend itself” line. The ministers have also been implicated as complicit in the slaughter.

Two earlier attempts to broach the Israeli blockade of Gaza by the FFC had been made in June and July. The July attempt involved two Australians taken into detention and being mistreated without high-level Australian condemnation. And Israel bombed a boat involved in the current flotilla when it was docked in Tunisia on 9 September, with Australians onboard, which again was officially ignored.

The inability of Australian leaders to address the fact that Australians were being detained and roughed up by Israeli officials, at the same time as they starve, kill and even rape to death innocent Palestinians, is something this nation has not been confronted with before, as it would seem that our ministers are forbidden or unable to criticise Tel Aviv.

The powerlessness of our officials was also on display last year, when Israel killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, in a targeted attack, which saw six of her World Central Kitchen colleagues murdered by the Israeli state too. Indeed, at that time, our top ministers weren’t able to condemn the killing, so the foreign minister instead produced a declaration on the protection of aid workers.

Of course, that DFAT officials were providing the detainees with assistance, while a foreign allied nation illegally imprisons them, abuses them and treats them to cruel and degrading treatment, was welcomed. However, the fact that the government is assisting the Australians but failing to address this situation officially at the highest level reveals the inability of Canberra to challenge Israel.

The six Australians were amongst the last third of the captives still detained on Tuesday afternoon Sydney time, while a second flotilla made up of multiple ships, including a large one known as the Conscience, is sailing through the Mediterranean Sea right now, bound for Gaza in another attempt to break the siege by the FFC.

Julie Webb-Pullman, the mother of detainee Bianca, told the ABC on Tuesday morning that she had not heard anything from her daughter since she had been abducted on the high seas last Thursday. But she had been receiving updates about her from DFAT. The department had told her that once her daughter had arrived at the prison, she’d been abused, humiliated and intimidated.

“Her medication was thrown in the bin in front of her,” said the mother of the then abducted Australian woman. “She has not been given any medication since, and DFAT said because of the type of medication she is on, the Israelis say they cannot provide it.”

In terms of the communication from the Australian government and DFAT, Bianca’s mother explained that “it has been pretty patchy. I have had to make all of the efforts, except on the day they did a consular visit, and finally, that’s the only time they did actually contact me, which was on Saturday. But every other contact has been at my initiation. They do not give out updates.”