Belleville resident Shahid Mahmood (far right) is part of a Global Sumud Flotilla taking shipments of food and relief to Gaza. Photo: Submitted
A Belleville man has described his experience after being detained by Israel.
Shahid Mahmood returned to Ontario over the weekend after being detained for three days by Israel, one of hundreds of people in the Global Sumud Flotilla who were trying to take humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Mahmood released the following statement through a release with Global Sumud Canada.
“[…] this was a harsh and terrible environment. They gave us almost no water in the beginning, and then we had to demand for water. Routinely they would throw stun grenades, flash grenades that were very loud, and repeatedly there were people who were coming and were given a torture treatment before they joined our group. […] It’s, it’s brutal, it’s eye-opening, it’s just horrible to see what Palestinians and Gaza people had to go through their entire life, every single day they have to go through this. We were so much in pain. Just for three days, we just experienced a small fraction of what they experience every day. The daily dehumanization, the daily brutalization, the humiliation, dragging, pulling, shoving their head, putting their head on the ground, they did that to us.”
Mahmood arrived at Pearson International Airport in Toronto over the weekend after flying in from Istanbul in a 15-hour, one-stop journey.
