\n Margaret Pacetta, 70, from Glasgow, is the first of four Scots to be released.\n<\/p>\n
\n She was one of nine UK nationals to be deported on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n
\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Scottish flotilla activist imprisoned by Israel ‘treated aggressively’<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n Pacetta arrived in Istanbul Airport on Saturday afternoon along with 136 other activists who were part of the flotilla, which was sailing to Gaza<\/a> in the hopes of delivering much-needed humanitarian aid.\n<\/p>\n The 9 British Global Sumud Flotilla participants deported by Israel:<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Pacetta has been involved in the pro-Palestine<\/a> movement for more than two decades, helping to run the Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign stall on Buchanan Street<\/a> every weekend.\n<\/p>\n \n She has a lifetime ban from Israel as a result of her activism, and was once shot in the West Bank after Israeli forces opened fire on a crowd with rubber bullets.\n<\/p>\n \n READ MORE:<\/strong> ‘We know nothing’: Families fear for Scottish flotilla activists detained by Israel<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n She was travelling on the Omar Al Mokhtar Flotilla along with Yvonne Ridley<\/a> , a journalist and founding member of the Alba Party based in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n \n The Omar Al Mokhtar set sail from Libya and eventually joined the Global Sumud Flotilla.\n<\/p>\n \n Overnight on Wednesday, Israeli forces intercepted the convoy in international waters<\/a> , detaining nearly 500 people and taking them to Israel, where they have been imprisoned while awaiting deportation.\n<\/p>\n \n The National told earlier on Saturday how Ridley is being subject to “aggressive” and “intimidating” treatment<\/a> while being held in Israeli prison, while she has also gone on hunger strike in protest.\n<\/p>\n \n After landing in Istanbul, Pacetta said her experience on the flotilla had been “fantastic” and “brilliant”.\n<\/p>\n \n But she also spoke of her “awful” experience inside the notorious Ketziot prison, located in the Negev desert in southern Israel, where human rights abuses have been well documented.\n<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udea8 Margaret Pacetta is the first Scottish activist taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla to be deported by Israel<\/p>\n She’s arrived in Istanbul & is in good spirits, but describes her ‘awful’ prison experience with no food or water & an officer slamming a door on her broken leg\ud83d\udc47 pic.twitter.com\/Bj6XpWs1Ll<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n \u2014 Lucy Jackson (@LucyAJackson_) October 4, 2025<\/a>\n <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \n She claimed an Israeli officer slammed a metal door on her despite knowing she had a broken leg.\n<\/p>\n \n She said: “That prison was awful, the Negev. No food, no water.\n<\/p>\n \n “My broken leg, the girl said to me, ‘oh, what happened to your leg?’. I said it’s broke, and she slammed a metal door on it and went, ‘sorry’. Horrible, horrible.”\n<\/p>\n \n A report published last year by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, titled “Welcome to Hell”<\/a>, highlighted the cases of 12 Palestinians held at the Ketziot prison, citing a lack of food and water, severe beatings and incidents of sexual abuse.\n<\/p>\n\n
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