Blindfolded, zip tied and deprived of sleep, Sligoman’s time in Israeli captivity after his capture on board Gaza flotilla aid boat

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

The sounds of war and destruction may have gone silent in Gaza over the past few days but one local man, Fionn Macarthur, who has just returned from that part of the world having been part of a global flotilla attempting to bring aid to Gaza is urging the people of Sligo and further afield to continue to support the Palestinian people.

The boat that Fionn was travelling on, the Conscience, was intercepted by Israeli forces as it made its way towards Gaza in the hope of bringing aid to the starving population but Fionn and the crew of mainly medics and journalists were aware of the likelihood of their progress being halted as had happened to other boats part of the flotilla.

Having endured a traumatic time at the hands of the Israeli forces Fionn is nevertheless proud to have played his part in the flotilla that came so close to success and helped further raise global awareness of the situation.

Now that he is safely home, Fionn is wary of plaudits for his bravery, preferring instead to focus on the plight of the Palestinian people but he is worthy of such praise as Cllr Declan Bree pointed out, “We owe Fionn and all those brave volunteers who participated in the Flotilla a debt of gratitude.

Fionn’s ship the Conscience was unarmed, its mission peaceful. Yet it was boarded with force by the Israeli military, its crew of international volunteers abducted, and its precious cargo confiscated. “The detention and the mistreatment of Flotilla participants by the Israeli military must be condemned in no uncertain terms. If governments, including ours, upheld their legal obligations to act to prevent and also to punish genocide, then people would not have had to take to the seas to try to break the illegal blockade of Gaza."

From the initial interception to being held in custody and then appearing before an Israeli judge and ultimately being flown home, Fionn’s story is both harrowing and inspiring. In order to tell the story of the past week, Fionn recounted his first involvement with humanitarian missions.

No stranger to the water, Fionn grew up in a boathouse close to Holy Well and after attending school in Carbury and the Grammar School, Fionn studied filmaking and having completed his studies in 2017 he became aware of the Refugee Rescue organisation and helped in the Moria refugee camp in Lesbos for a period of time. The “horrific” conditions didn’t deter him as he attempted to document the struggles being faced by people fleeing war torn areas.

"It was incredible. People were in such dire situations, they had left everything behind to escape war and persecution and people are just so hospitable in that situation. The majority were Afghans, I learned Dari there, the language of Afghanistan.

"About two months ago I went over to Denmark, Refugee Rescue were actually holding an exhibition because they have been 10 years on the sea doing search and rescue and they were able to rescue 25,000 people in this 10 years. Unfortunately, their boat is not fit for the sea anymore so they are hoping to raise €100,000 to get a new boat and a new search and rescue rib. I went over and helped them out at the exhibition. That was the first time I met them in person.”

When the talk of a global flotilla was mooted Fionn thought it was something he would like to be involved with.

"I was asked did I know anyone who would be interested in going on the next wave of boats. I reached out to some friends but they were busy unfortunately. I put myself forward because as a filmmaker I thought I would like to put my skills to use on one of the boats and document and that is how I got involved.

I first went over with the Thousand Madleens in Sicilly. They had eight boats that were operational and they had crews ready to go so I was just on call. Nothing was set in stone, I wasn’t sure if I was going to go or not go. If somebody had cold feet, I’d jump in.

"There was no space for me so I was thinking I’m going back to Ireland. We waved goodbye as everybody left the harbour and then I rang the Conscience, Veronica O’Keane had found out that I was interested and she was able to notify some of the crew from Ireland who were part of the delegation and I was able to get on the Conscience. I got a 10 hour bus from Sicilly to Otranto and had two more days training with them and then we took off from Otranto.”

The first wave of boats in the flotilla was in the Sumud wave and even after they had been intercepted by Israeli forces, Fionn and the team onboard the Conscience knew they were going to continue even if that meant they suffered the same fate.

“We were at sea already by the time they were intercepted. We knew, at whatever cost, we were going to continue sailing to hopefully break the siege and hopefully get aid into Gaza. We trained for it, we knew there was a strong chance of being intercepted by the Israeli Navy and we prepared as much as possible for that.

"We kept on sailing and were intercepted at 4.30am on Wednesday morning. It was very quick, we thought we would have more time. Our Australian skipper, she sounded the alarm, we ran up to the upper deck at the stern at the back of the boat to the muster station (designated meeting point).

"We all got our lifejackets on and we sat down and prepared for them to board the ship. Two Apache helicopters came over the top, these naval commandos trapezed down from the helicopters with their machine guns.

"There were snipers in the choppers and they had laser sights pointed at some people on the deck as well. We kept breathing, talking to ourselves, some of us were humming together. We started chanting we are medics, we are journalists to make that know.

"Some more of the commandos boarded the boat from the stern at the back with their ribs. There was roughly 50 of these commandos on the boat. We were all sitting down, we had our hands up. I had thrown my phone overboard and my small camera as well because I didn’t want them to get any of my footage or to get my phone.

"Pretty much everyone threw their electronics overboard. You wouldn’t trust them what they might to do to them. They could go through them or they could attach malware.

When asked how they were treated by their captors, Fionn replied, “It was pretty rough. They searched our person, they went through all our belongings. First they ransacked the boat, they went through the whole boat tore it upside down wile we were outside on the deck.

"They had other soldiers pointing guns at us the whole time, told us not to move and then searched us one by one. Then they put us all into one big room on the boat, the dining room and it was really hot. This room is always hot, you couldn’t open any windows.

"There was a door at the front and two doors at the back that would allow some fresh air but it was well over 30 degrees in there. Bear in mind that there was some eldery folk with us. There was a woman who was in her 80s and some men who were in their late 70s. We were able to get some mats for them to lie down, we are able to push the soldiers to allow that.

"They were trying to give us food and water but keep in mind they also had their own camera man with them so they were trying to film their own propaganda to show that they were being nice to us. They were known to be doing this on a previous interception so we were sure not to take their food.

" Some people did, some of the Turkish crew did but we made it vocally known that we weren’t going to take anything from them. They forced the chef to cook food and we weren’t taking any of that food either but we snuck some food ourselves when the cameras were off us. They would change some of the soldiers around and some of them didn’t have cameras on them so we were able to drink some of our own water.

"We were 14 or 15 hours held captive in that room. They had their own doctor as well but we wouldn’t allow them. For example there was a man who was quite unwell, I think he had low blood sugar levels, he was about to faint, very pale. He needed his medication but it was in a different room. Veronica had asked a soldier if she could get the medication and he refused.

"This commando said we have our own doctor, he will see to you. They were told we have our own doctors here and we trust our own doctors, we don’t trust you. They took him out of the room and eventually he came back but the soldier was getting pretty hostile. At one point he took out his taser and held it just in front of Veronica and then one of the other doctor’s de-escalated the situation and then the soldier stopped.”

After the treatment that was endured onboard the Conscience, it didn’t get any better when they docked in Ashdod as Fionn recalls.

“We were then brought to the Port of Ashdod in occupied Palestine, in Israel. By now it was night time and we disembarked the boat one by one. As soon as we got off they took all of us in a grip hold with your arms behind your back and pushed our back down so our head was low and we couldn’t see in front of us.

"They walked us about 100 metres and then after that we were forced onto our knees and to wait on our knees for about an hour while there was a load of police around us and we were told not to look up.

"I was able to look around, I had a jacket with a hood that kind of fell over my head a little bit and I was able to look at the periphery to my right and left, just check everybody, look at everybody. People were pretty shook up of course, it was really tough for a lot of people, especially the elderly.

"A Tunisian journalist who was with us, 10 guys surrounded him and beat him up just because he had a keffiyeh (Palestinian scarf) on him. Anyone who had a darker skin colour they really took it out on them. We had four Israeli citizens with us, one other didn’t have dual nationality and I saw two female Israeli police had her by her arms. They kneed her twice in the stomach before dragging her off while cursing at her in Hebrew.”

Once they were detained the diplomatic efforts began to ensure the release of Fionn and his colleagues with a visit from a representative from the Irish Embassy, bringing reassurance and water.

“I knew there would be a lot of (diplomatic) pressure as soon as we were in there. The freedom flotilla coalition would make that apparent. We had all taken pictures and short videos beforehand to say that if we were intercepted illegally and kidnapped by the Israeli authorities that we call on everyone to make as much noise as possible.

"I think it was about a day and a half later, we were put on a bus after the processing at the port. I don’t remember how long that journey was but it felt like forever. It could have been six hours or more. We were blindfolded and zip tied with our hands in front of us. There were two rooms inside this prison bus and there could have been 14 on each side. There was 14 on my side and there was locked doors.

"Then we arrived at the prison, Ketziot prison in the Negev desert. We were thrown into cells inside the prison. We had heard people from the Sumud flotilla were taken there for eight days and their toilet was overflowing. As soon as they were in their cells the toilet wasn’t working and the Israeli police and the prison guards wouldn’t allow them move to another cell so you can imagine how tough that must have been. There were a couple of people forced into solitary confinement and I believe that was really tough.

"A lot of people chose not to eat. I didn’t eat anything or drink for nearly two days until Evan Cunningham from the Irish Embassy in Tel Aviv met me on the second day. We were all taken outside our cells, forced into this cage or pen with razor wire and barbed wire around it and called one by one to come out and then we were able to see our consulate.

"That’s when I met Evan Cunningham and he gave me two and half glasses of water which was amazing. It was great to see an Irish face and he asked how I was doing and reassured me that I was going to get out pretty soon hopefully but he couldn’t guarantee it. He said there’s a flight at 2pm the following day and we hope that you will be on that but we can’t know for sure because it is up to the Israeli’s and they can change anything.

"They used sleep deprivation tactics on us as well, every hour or so they would come out and bang on the doors with their guns. They would point the laser on the gun into our faces then tell us to get up. We would get up and then they would run out of the cell again. They were doing that at all times just to harass us.”

Not far from those prison cells Fionn said he could “Hear Palestinians being tortured in a different wing, a different part of the prison.”

There were moments of relief, such as when Fionn met Lee, a Welsh nurse who had helped provide training ahead of the flotilla setting sail. They saw each other when Lee’s smaller boat passed the Conscience and they were next reunited in a prison cell.

“It was great to see him in the cell. I came in, in the middle of the night and he greeted me, the hugged me and then after that when the Israeli guards came to the door doing their sleep deprivation tactics they asked me my name. I told them my name, they took me out and put me in another cell so that was the last time Lee saw him until the “Kangaroo Court” they brought us to two days later.

"There was an Israeli judge in a box, kind of portacabins, and they would bring us out. Lee was with me in that room as well and we had our lawyers beside us at that point. I remember the judge asking me did any of my possessions get stolen and i said “yes.”

When he said how, I said, “Well no, i actually threw them into the sea.” I remember him saying that is so bad for the environment. Me and Lee burst out laughing when we left the room after the judicial hearing, we said as if a genocide isn't bad for the environment.”

Now safely home, Fionn is proud to have been part of the global flotilla but not is not looking for any recognition, rather his focus is on continuing to shine on a spotlight on the plight of the Palestinian people.

“I hope the killing and murdering of innocent people can end. It should never have been up to ordinary civilians to go on a mission like this, this was the last hope to get aid through to Palestinians and break the siege. There will be more flotillas after this, and it is turning into a bigger and bigger movement.

"There were people with us who had gone before us and had been intercepted and kidnapped by the Israeli forces in international waters, illegally and they are continuing to push and to go and it is so important that we are not highlighted as heroes, we are just ordinary people, and this is about the Palestinians and their voices need to be heard.”

Cllr Bree, a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, who met with Fionn on his return to Sligo at the weekend said: “The Israeli regime had no legal authority to detain Fionn and the other international volunteers aboard the Flotilla.

“The seizure blatantly violated international law and defied the International Court of Justice’s binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. “We owe Fionn and all those brave volunteers who participated in the Flotilla a debt of gratitude.

“Fionn’s ship the ‘Conscience’ was unarmed, its mission peaceful. Yet it was boarded with force by the Israeli military, its crew of international volunteers abducted, and its precious cargo confiscated.

“The people on the Flotilla were carrying aid, hope and solidarity and should never have been stopped from getting to Gaza. The detention and the mistreatment of Flotilla participants by the Israeli military must be condemned in no uncertain terms. “If governments, including ours, upheld their legal obligations to act to prevent and also to punish genocide, then people would not have had to take to the seas to try to break the illegal blockade of Gaza.

“Regardless of the truce, it is now time for the Irish government to stop dragging its heels and impose sanctions – by enacting the Occupied Territories Bill, including a ban on trade with services in illegal settlements in the West Bank and by ending the use of Irish airspace and airports for the transiting of armaments to Israel.”