INTERVIEW | SINN FÉIN ACTIVISTS ON BOARD MV SAOIRSE

Irish Gaza siege breakers defy Israel

Belfastmen John Mallon and Phil McCullough were part of the Irish crew of the MV Saoirse which also included Sinn Féin Councillors John Hearne (Waterford City Council) and Pat Fitzgerald (Waterford County Council)

BY PEADAR WHELAN

THE Irish aid workers kidnapped by the Israeli military as they brought aid to the besieged citizens of Gaza defied their captors throughout the duration of their ordeal.
The 14-strong crew of the MV Saoirse, along with the crew of the Canadian-registered Al-Tahrir (‘Freedom’), were taken prisoner by Israeli commandos during the afternoon of Friday 4th November as they headed for Gaza.
Two of those on board the MV Saoirse were Belfast republicans John Mallon and Phil McCullough.
Despite being in international waters the two vessels were surrounded by several warships and ordered to halt. The aid ships refused as they were sailing in international waters. Two helicopters buzzed the aid ships. They were blasted with heavy water cannon as their communications systems were jammed. “When we refused their order to pull over, the warships formed a tight ring around us and made us collide,” John recalls. “The smaller Saoirse was holed and we started taking on water.”
Heavily-armed commandos boarded the aid ships and forcibly took the vessels and crews under gunpoint to Ashdod Port and what was to be an eight-day detention. During the journey, the Irish crew stayed as a group in the cabin to reduce the chances of being physically ill-treated by their captors. In port, they defied the Israelis until a diplomat arrived from the Irish Embassy and they felt safe enough to leave the cabin.
The crew, nevertheless, were made to endure thorough strip searches and all their cameras, mobile phones and laptops were confiscated. When John Mallon refused an attempt at a second strip search, the guard got angry. “He was raging so he had me handcuffed and shackled.”
The Irish crew refused to answer any questions from immigration officials and kept telling their captors that they were kidnapped and had been brought into the country illegally.
By the time they reached Givon Prison, where they were to spend the next eight days, it was about 4am the following morning. The crews from both ships were at least now together again.
John and Phil say they had gone to bed on arrival and were barely asleep when the prison guards burst in, shouting: “Prisoners up! Prisoners up!” Phil says:
“We jumped up thinking we were going to be moved or possibly beaten up but the Screws were just laughing. We found out later that it’s policy for the Screws to come in four or five times in the night screaming at the prisoners to waken them and get them up.” Male Screws would threaten the women and walk into their cells unannounced.
The next morning the prisoners formed a committee to deal with the prison authorities and they would act collectively.
As they were only allowed out of their cells for three hours a day, the first demand they put to the prison was for free association. They also told the Screws they wouldn’t be getting out of their beds when they came in at night shouting. At first the Screws refused to concede any ground but they prisoners stuck to their position and the won the issue, as well as access to reading and writing material.
At one point, when the prisoners were in the middle of a meeting, the prison governor came onto the wing. “We told him to get out. He was fuming and told us it was his prison but we just told him where to go. It was brilliant. He just couldn’t believe it.”
During their detention a judge would ‘hear their cases’ on the wing and try to get them to sign forms accepting they had entered Israel illegally. They would then be deported immediately. The prisoners, who at this point were declaring to their captors they were political prisoners, refused to sign out, saying they had been kidnapped and were being held against their will. All the prisoners confronted the judge over their treatment of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
John Mallon told him: “You are the only criminal here. You are part of a state that is murdering women and children in Gaza. You are war criminals.”
Safely back in Ireland now, both John and Phil are determined to keep the issue of Palestine and the siege of Gaza is kept in the public domain. They are also planning on taking part in an overland aid convoy through Egypt and into Gaza by the crossing at Rafah.
They’re not giving up.

A video interview with Phil McCullough and John Mallon can be seen on YouTube under the title:
“SF activists recount Israeli kidnapping”