Niamh O'Connor

And so our systems weren't registering it.

They take you to this huge prison boat wherein you're then taken off their speedboat and then you're immediately processed.

And the difference between the first kidnapping to the second was like the escalation of violence was just from the moment we hopped on, people were being abused and beaten.

We were called terrorists.

They actually genuinely believe their own lies and their own narrative.

And I saw during the first interception that Israel tried to do a smear campaign against the GSF by calling us like the cocaine flotilla or the party flotilla and trying to really minimise the importance of our message by making us seem like these just like party sex-crazed freaks because that's all they have is lies and manipulation of the truth.

So when we're on board and we're at their own mercy of their navy,

they just repeat these lies back at you as if to like try and antagonise you into acting crazily so then they have a right to attack.

You just have to let it wash over.

So when they're calling you a terrorist or they're calling you all these horrible slurs, they're incredibly racist.

So targeting men, particularly men of the global south, but anyone as a person of colour with racialised and prejudiced slurs is

it's all about trying to spark a response in you so that they can escalate the violence against you in a justified manner.

So you just have to sit there and let these insults and let this abuse, like verbal abuse, just wash right past you as much as you want to retaliate.

You can't because you'll never win and you just have to remember that we were there for Gaza.

We weren't there to start a fight with Israel.

So I was beaten in my first time being kidnapped.

I would just like to preface by saying not a single person left this flotilla without experiencing some kind of abuse, all physical at some point, but then there was also emotional and psychological.

Not a single person emerged unscathed.

The way that they walk you is incredibly uncomfortable intentionally.

So your head is between your legs and your arms are twisted to the point of dislocation behind your back.