- 'She (Greta Thunberg) was made to sit on her own in the back corner and they surrounded her with Israeli flags and laughing and jeering and just terrible behavior," says Evie Snedker
- 'The Turks treated us amazingly well...They took us straight from the airport to a forensics, I guess, lab, and they did full reports on us, full medical checks. All our bruises and stuff they fully took into account, psychological analysis,' says Global Sumud Flotilla activist
LONDON
A British participant of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was attacked last week by Israeli forces, recounted male Israeli soldiers forcibly removing Muslim women's hijabs in front of men and stealing her medicine as part of the "terrible behavior" they faced, while noting that they were treated in Türkiye "amazingly well."
Evie Snedker, 26, was one of the 13 British citizens who were illegally detained by Israel after it attacked the flotilla in international waters.
In an interview with Anadolu at Heathrow Airport, where she arrived late Sunday from Türkiye along with fellow British activists Sarah Wilkinson, Francis Cummings and Kieran Andrieu, she labelled Israeli treatment of activists as "very, very poor" and "terrible."
"As a white Western woman, I can only imagine what Palestinians go through," she said.
Saying that activists were subjected to all kinds of assaults by Israeli soldiers, Snedker recalled that they were denied sleep, access to water, food, medication and "everything you can think of, really basic decency."
"They stole my EpiPen from me...I said, 'I could die.' They said, 'We don't care," she said, adding: "Women forcibly had their hijabs removed by men in front of men."
She said that along with the "terrible treatment," they also experienced how the Israeli soldiers were “incompetent" and "disorganized."
"Those that boarded the ship, they couldn't even stand up on the boat with the waves. They couldn't work the autopilot. They couldn't clean their own guns. The immaturity and the incompetence really shone through."
Asked about the Israeli soldiers’ treatment of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, Snedker said she saw them hanging Israeli flags next to her while she was made to sit on her own in the back corner after the activists were illegally detained in international waters.
"They surrounded her with Israeli flags and laughing and jeering and just terrible behavior," she added.
'The Turks treated us amazingly well'
She also recounted their poor detention conditions, where there were 16 activists in a cell with two bunk beds.
Snedker also said she heard reports of people being sexually assaulted while she witnessed other people being beaten up.
Speaking about their time in Türkiye after being deported by Israel, she said: "The Turks treated us amazingly well, I have to say, from the moment we landed."
"They were brilliant. As soon as we landed, they gave us clothes, shoes...They provided food for everyone," she noted.
"They took us straight from the airport to a forensics, I guess, lab, and they did full reports on us, full medical checks. All our bruises and stuff they fully took into account, psychological analysis," she added.
Also noting that she was ill when she arrived in Türkiye, Snedker said she was sent straight to a hospital for treatment and then to a hotel for the night.
Asked whether she would join another flotilla en route to Gaza, Snedker said “yes” without even thinking.
"I think we got the closest boat, got 20, I can't remember, 24 or 27 nautical miles away. And apparently the Gazans saw the lights of the boat, and those on the boat heard the bombs. They saw Gaza."
"I say the lack of competence of the Israeli forces was, at times, comical. So I think if we can go back, we regroup. I think it's possible to potentially get there," she added.
Israeli naval forces attacked and seized vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla beginning on Wednesday and detained more than 470 activists from over 50 countries.
The flotilla had been attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and challenge Israel’s blockade of the enclave.
Israel has maintained the blockade on Gaza, home to nearly 2.4 million people, for almost 18 years.
Since October 2023, Israeli bombardments have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it uninhabitable.
