AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Israeli forces intercepted another Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla in the early hours of Wednesday morning that was attempting to break Israel’s blockade and deliver humanitarian aid. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens to Gaza sent a fleet of 11 vessels with 150 people on board, including doctors. They initially said three boats were attacked in international waters 120 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Soon after, all boats were intercepted by Israel.

This was the second such interception in the past week. Days before, Israeli forces intercepted about 40 vessels and detained more than 450 activists who were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Some of the activists abducted on the high seas reported physical abuse, humiliation and inhumane treatment by Israeli soldiers. Detained activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla included the former South African prime minister, Mandla — MP, sorry, member of Parliament, Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela. He was held in an Israeli prison for six days before being released via Jordan.

NKOSI ZWELIVELILE MANDELA: We were handcuffed with cable ties tied tightly behind our backs, taken off our boats and put on the platform, paraded for all the Israelis and their allies in Europe and the West and the global community to see. …

But it’s nothing compared to what Palestinians have been subjected to on a daily basis. We were kidnapped on international waters. Palestinians are attacked, maimed and killed. …

Whilst many of our comrades were offered opportunity to shower, they ensured that the South African delegation was denied this. But we understood very well why that is so: because we are a nation that dared, through our government, to take apartheid Israel to the International Court of Justice.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, after he was released from an Israeli jail, part of the Sumud Flotilla, now back in South Africa.

We’re joined in Paris by David Adler, co-general coordinator of Progressive International, who participated in the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla before it was intercepted by Israeli forces. He’s written a new piece for Jacobin headlined “I Spent Five Days in Israel’s Desert Prison.”

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, David. We spoke to you on the high seas. Tell us what happened to you and what happened to the other flotilla activists before you were deported.

DAVID ADLER: So, last Wednesday night, in the early hours of the morning, we were violently raided and abducted by Israeli naval forces in international waters. And over the coming hours, as was said by my comrade, Mandla Mandela, we were taken to the Port of Ashdod, where our belongings and boats were stolen from us and confiscated. They literally ripped jewelry, necklaces, rings, precious things out of our bags and belongings, and threw them away or confiscated them, without any access to them from — or demand that we could make on our own. And we were, you know, put in positions of humiliation and paraded around for Ben-Gvir and his friends to take a photo opportunity.

At that point, they reached down and saw my passport, which had my full name, David Rashi Kremen Adler, and asked if I was Jewish. I said I was Jewish. They ripped me by the ear and forced me to bend down and stare at the flag of the state of Israel for Ben-Gvir to come and have a personal one-on-one and call me a terrorist to my face.

Over the coming hours, we were strip-searched, zip-tied, blindfolded and disappeared into the Negev Desert, into one of the most infamous — Guantánamo Bay of Israel, Ktzi’ot — detention camps, 400,000 square meters, where many hundreds and thousands of political prisoners from Palestine have been held and tortured over the course of the past 30 years, since — and indeed, since it was reopened in 2002, after they had to shut it down for repeated reports of serial human rights violations.

Over the coming days inside that camp, we, as internees, I should say — it wasn’t a prison, it was an internment camp — suffered serial and systematic violations of our most basic rights. We had, on and off, no access to food, water, never a shower. The North Africans, in particular, were targeted for severe abuse and beatings, taken out of their cells with German Shepherds and guns at their heads and cuffed at the hands, cuffed at the ankles, blindfolded and put into isolation. We had to sort of try to rally as a cell block to get them back. And I must say, systematic deprivation of lifesaving medicine, which includes insulin. One of the women in the cell blocks had such a severe kidney infection that she fainted twice, and over two days was denied access to medicine.

And these were just the most basic, basic conditions that we endured over the course of our time in Ktzi’ot, while we had no access to legal representation, while our families were left without any information about our whereabouts, about our health and existence, and, needless to say, without any access or support from U.S. consular services.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, indeed, as far as the U.S. response has gone, the Trump administration’s response, earlier this week, on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took to social media to attack you, David Adler, personally, as a, quote, “self-absorbed tool of Hamas.” Your response?

DAVID ADLER: My response is that we must break the myth that has been installed in so much of Hollywood propaganda: The United States State Department is out here to save, extract and rescue you from wherever you are in the world. In fact, if you look at, actually, the different delegations that are part of this mission, the U.S. delegation was treated by far — one of the worst by our own consular services. They did not arrive to the prison camp until maybe four days after our disappearance and detention in the middle of the Negev Desert. And when they did, they said, “You know what, guys? You’re on your own. There’s nothing we can do for you. You’re in Israel’s hands now.”

And I will say it did not stop there, the systematic abandonment by the State Department and the consular services. When we were eventually freed and deported to Jordan, we were dropped there. The other delegations that were there were greeted, welcomed, treated, hugged, put into hotels, given flights home. The U.S. consul told us, “We are not your babysitters. We will not provide food, water, clothes, hotels, transportation. The most we can do for you is have the Jordanians drive you to the airport. We’re going to drop you off without any cellphones or money. You are on your own.” That is how our government thinks about us. They do not serve us. They serve the state of Israel. And they share what I would maybe describe as the Pete Hegseth school of international law, that due process is no process, and it doesn’t matter that we never saw a judge, a jury, never saw our lawyers or a prosecutor, were never charged with anything.

This is just a fraction of what we know Palestinians, who are still in these torture and detention camps, 11,000 of whom were taken from Gaza alone, let alone the West Bank, are suffering on a daily basis. This is what happens to, you know, white Westerners, in my case, a Jewish American, humanitarian workers who are simply trying to deliver basic critical aid to the starving people of Palestine.

AMY GOODMAN: David Adler, we want to thank you very much for being with us, co-general coordinator of Progressive International, who participated in the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla before it was intercepted by Israeli forces. We’ll link to your article, “I Spent Five Days in Israel’s Desert Prison.”

That does it for our show. I’ll be speaking in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on October 17th after the showing of the film about Democracy Now!, Steal This Story, Please! That’s at the Lensic theater, October 17th. On October 18th and 19th, the film will show at the Woodstock Film Festival, and I’ll be speaking along with the Oscar-nominated filmmakers of Steal This Story, Please!, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, and Karen Ranucci, the producer. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. You can check our website at democracynow.org.