Israel has long abandoned civilized norms in the way that it treats non-Israelis. Like its patron, the US, it thinks that it can use its power to treat anyone abominably, abandoning civilized norms and international laws, riding roughshod over the rights of anyone that happens to cross its path. This has become apparent in the way that it treats Palestinians in general and the people of Gaza in particular. Now reports have emerged about how Israeli armed forces abused the people who were on a flotilla trying to bring aid to the suffering people of Gaza that adds support to its deplorable image. The flotilla consisted of about 50 ships with ordinary people from all over the world whose goal was to bring even a tiny amount of relief to the long-suffering people there.

The report should be shocking but given the levels of barbarism now routinely exhibited by Israel, it seems like this is now their normal behavior.

Activists released from Israeli custody after being detained on a flotilla trying to take aid to Gaza were subjected to abuse, organisers have alleged, with several hospitalised with injuries and at least 15 reporting sexual assaults, including rape.

Israel’s prison service denied the allegations, and Reuters was not able to verify them independently.

Germany said some of its nationals had been injured and that some accusations were “serious”, without giving further details. A legal source in Italy said prosecutors there were investigating possible crimes, including kidnapping and sexual assault.

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Israeli forces arrested 430 people onboard 50 ships in international waters on Tuesday to halt the flotilla of volunteers trying to take aid supplies to the Gaza Strip.

The allegations of abuse will add to pressure on Israeli authorities to explain the treatment of the detainees, after video footage of the Israeli security minister mocking some of the activists in prison sparked an international outcry.
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Luca Poggi, an Italian economist among those detained from the flotilla, told Reuters on his arrival in Rome: “We were stripped, thrown to the ground, kicked. Many of us were Tasered, some were sexually assaulted, and some were denied access to a lawyer.”

Prosecutors in Rome were investigating the possible crimes of kidnapping, torture and sexual assault and would hear testimony from activists who had returned to Italy, the Italian legal source said.
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Sabrina Charik, who helped organise the return of 37 French citizens from the flotilla, told Reuters that five French participants had been hospitalised in Turkey, some with broken ribs or fractured vertebrae. Some had made detailed accusations of sexual violence, including of rape, she said.

The report goes into detail about other abuses the flotilla participants suffered at the hands of the Israeli military thugs, who were supported by the defense minister who took part in taunting the captives.

Here is an Australian doctor describing how they were treated.

Israel’s level of brutality is extreme, starting with its genocide in Gaze and extending to its bombings in Lebanon and Iran, and the way that it has implemented a program of ethnic cleansing by expropriating the land of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, destroying their farms and orchards and thus their livelihood, and allowing settlers to assault the Palestinian resident in order to drive them away. Disregarding the basic human needs and dignity of anyone that it takes a dislike is now the norm for Israel.

It is only because the US, no stranger itself to treating people barbarically, provides cover that Israel gets away with this kind of behavior. Is it any wonder that even in the US, more and more people, even in Congress, are abandoning the once uncritical support that they used to give Israel?