WASHINGTON, (PIC)
Haitham Arafat, an American of Palestinian origin who recently returned after being detained by Israeli occupation forces while participating in a humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza, described the Israelis as “worse than the Nazis,” saying he was abducted from international waters before being imprisoned in Israeli jails.
More than 100 people welcomed Arafat at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, near Washington, waving Palestinian flags and holding signs reading “Welcome Home.” His mother was the first to embrace him as supporters chanted: “Welcome home, Haitham, you made us proud.”
The emotional reception included children carrying paper boats decorated with his name and messages reading “We love you,” while participants held a march demanding an end to US aid to Israel, condemning the killing of civilians and the detention of Palestinians, and calling for the release of prisoners. Chants included: “Free Palestine, Zionism will fall.”
Despite visible exhaustion after weeks at sea attempting to break the siege on Gaza, Arafat downplayed his own suffering, saying it was “nothing” compared to what Palestinians in Gaza endure daily.
In his first remarks after arriving home, he said: “I was able to come home. We were held in the same prison where people from Gaza had been detained. I saw their names written on the walls. I don’t know where they are now, or whether they ever made it home. This is not a prison, it’s a concentration camp.”
He added, “What we experienced for one day is nothing compared to what Palestinians go through. These detention camps are designed not just to humiliate you but to break your dignity and humanity and make you feel like you are not human.”
Arafat said thousands of Palestinians are subjected to humiliation inside Israeli prisons every day, adding: “We only exposed a tiny fraction of what Palestinians suffer, but thousands are living this nightmare daily, and something must be done.”
He revealed that while leaving Ramon Airport, he saw 18 US military aircraft carrying both American and Israeli flags. “That’s why Israel can abduct people from international waters with the complicity of this government,” he said, adding that he felt ashamed of his American citizenship.
Arafat said he drew strength during his detention from the names of Palestinian prisoners engraved on prison walls, describing their situation as “hell.”
He recounted what he described as deliberate attempts to break the activists’ will because they tried to challenge the siege on Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid. He referred to the Israeli military as “an army that rapes women.”
“When you look at their procedures, it feels like you’re inside concentration camps and barbed wire fences,” he said. “They give you a number instead of a name, soldiers with machine guns watch you constantly, and if you do anything wrong, they may shoot you.”
He added that detainees were kept in handcuffs most of the time and were only allowed to sleep without restraints for four hours over two and a half days. “They forced us to bend down and keep our heads lowered, and if anyone tried to stand upright, they beat them,” he said.
Arafat also commented on the widely circulated video published by Itamar Ben-Gvir, saying, “Sometimes the arrogance of your enemy works in your favor. Without that video, no one would have believed us.”
He accused the administration of US President Donald Trump of being complicit with Israel and participating in a “genocide,” criticizing sanctions imposed on Palestinians and their leadership.
“We should never be ashamed to say that we have the right to defend ourselves,” he said. “International law gives us that right. The ones who should be sanctioned are the perpetrators of crimes, not us.”