‘They want to break our will’: Gaza flotilla activist tells of rape in Israeli detention

Anna Liedtke pictured in Cologne, Germany. ‘There is no reason for me to be ashamed.’ Photograph: Judith Jockel/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Anna Liedtke pictured in Cologne, Germany. ‘There is no reason for me to be ashamed.’ Photograph: Judith Jockel/The Guardian ‘They want to break our will’: Gaza flotilla activist tells of rape in Israeli detention Anna Liedtke files criminal complaint in Israel over alleged attack by female guards and says abuse was intended to silence campaigners T he third time Anna Liedtke was subjected to an illegal strip-search in Israeli detention, female prison guards forced her on to her knees, covered her mouth to stop her screaming and raped her, according to interviews and a criminal complaint filed in Israel . She described hearing male guards laughing during the attack, which she believes they watched and may have filmed. It took place in an area separated from the prison hallway by a partially drawn curtain that her attackers had left open. Liedtke, 25, joined a flotilla sailing from Europe to Gaza with humanitarian aid last autumn. Israeli forces intercepted her boat in international waters on 8 October and took her to Israel, where she was detained for five days. The abuse and violence directed at flotilla participants in Israeli prisons, including rape, was intended to intimidate, Liedtke said. “It’s clear they want to break our will and silence us, making this so traumatic that we will never talk about Palestine again,” she told the Guardian. 1:05 Israel intercepts Freedom Flotilla boats carrying medical aid to Gaza – video Instead, she told friends and doctors within days. In December she became the first flotilla activist to talk publicly about rape in Israeli detention. More than a dozen others have reported sexual assault, most anonymously. Now lawyers acting for Liedtke in Israel have filed a complaint demanding authorities investigate her allegations. Israeli law defines rape as all non-consensual penetration. “There is no reason for me to be ashamed,” Liedtke said, in her first interview about the legal case. “Whenever we are silent, they will do it to another person.” The complaint, sent to the Israeli attorney general, the Israel Prison Service’s legal adviser, the Department for the Investigation of Prison Guards (Yahas), and the commander of Givon prison, was a challenge to a “culture of impunity” for abuse of prisoners in Israel, said Liedtke’s lawyer, Muna Haddad. “It is Anna’s wish to seek justice and exhaust all avenues to hold the perpetrators of these acts accountable. We also want to raise awareness and see how the Israeli system responds when faced with our demand to open an investigation,” Haddad said. “Sexual violence and rape are recurring violations that have been perpetrated against Palestinian prisoners for nearly three years … We are now seeing an escalation where Israel is prepared to expand this conduct to foreign citizens acting in solidarity with Palestinians.” View im