"It just felt so rogue, it was like anything could happen": Isla Lamont on being kidnapped from an aid boat by Israeli forces
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Ivana Daskalovic
Content Warning
The following story contains accounts of severe violence, sexual abuse and torture.
Three weeks ago on Wednesday night, 20 May, 25 year-old Australian youth worker Isla Lamont was dragged from a prison cell in the Naqab desert to a room where armed soldiers were waiting for her. Her wrists were in tight metal handcuffs and her feet were restrained.
"They pulled down my pants to my ankles, where the shackles were, and my underpants, and took off my top, unclipped my bra. That's when there were, like, four soldiers in there with a gun to my head saying they will shoot me if I don't say 'I love Israel'."
This was the second time Isla was "strip searched" that day. The first time was at Ashdod Port, after she was kidnapped from a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla sailing in international waters west of Cyprus. She was one of 428 international volunteers, including 11 Australian citizens, who were abducted and transported to the occupied territories against their will.
For almost four days, on their sailboats in Europe, aboard a converted prison ship in international waters, at Ashdod Port in southern Palestine, Ketziot Prison in the Naqab Desert, on prison buses, and all the way up to the entrance of the aeroplane, Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) participants were beaten, tortured and raped for daring to sail to Gaza with aid.
The scene taking place in that room in Ketziot Prison was towards the end of the four horrifying and bizarre days Isla was imprisoned by Israeli forces, where she was continually beaten and sexually abused, her ribs were broken, and she was injected with an unknown substance.
"It just felt so rogue. It was like anything could happen because it was just like these young dudes that all had cigarettes behind their ears."
Read the full story at Red Action Media:
Ivana Daskalovic
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