Cobh man Paddy O’Donovan was one of 22 Irish citizens taking part in the Gaza Sumud Flotilla, which was carrying food, baby formula and medicine for the people of Gaza, when it was intercepted by Israeli forces about 60 miles off the coast last week.
IDF troops boarded and 16 Irish crew members aboard were brought to a detention centre, the Ktzi’ot prison complex in the Negev desert, for five days. The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Monday that all Irish citizens who were detained were released and have returned home. Some 450 participants in the flotilla were arrested last week on board 42 boats in the waters off Gaza.
Cork grandfather Paddy was among them, and is now back on Irish soil, saying there was a time he thought he may never return.
“They were quite violent, they sank my boat, they started cutting pipes in the engine room and, the water came up around their knees and they cocked their weapons and took off their safety catches on the machine guns,” he told the Neil Prendeville show on Cork’s Redfm.
“I thought they were actually gonna kill us. They kind of staged this big story where they were about to save us, and they took us onto a naval destroyer then.”
In the lead up to the interception, Paddy was aware that the forces were on the way due to radar. A number of soldiers arrived, with vessels surrounding the flotilla.
“ We were trained already in nonviolence, we had already communicated that we were a nonviolent humanitarian flotilla bringing aid to Gaza. They didn’t even answer back. They just went straight for boarding and they just removed us from the cockpit.”
As their boat sank, they were placed in a cell on the naval destroyer and transported to the prison camp. Paddy says the group was moved into the compound with their hands tied behind their backs, and that they were told to get on the ground,
“Elderly people were thrown on the ground and not allowed to get up. We were in that position for about six hours, where they were shouting at you and filming you to degrade you,” he said.
“I saw people getting physically abused for just moving. If you wanted to go to the toilet, they wouldn’t even look at you. They were shouting and roaring at you, pushing and prodding you.”
Despite this, Paddy said that the group did their best to maintain their dignity and their composure.
After having their personal possessions seized, they were moved to vans to be transported to the prison complex, with Paddy recalling that some people were blindfolded and everyone had their hands restrained. On arrival he said they were stripped and given uniforms before being placed in cages outside in the sun for a number of hours, before eventually being brought to their cells, which he described as “eight man cells” with 16 to 20 people in each. He said that they were refused clean water, and that many people, Paddy included, began a hunger strike.
As a response to the hunger strike, Paddy said that some strikers were taken to a room where people were eating a table laden with food to watch them eat. He said that after being ”kidnapped in international waters” his resolve to not break the hunger strike was strong, despite this.
He added that they were unable to sleep properly, being regularly disturbed and berated. “ You’d try and get some sleep and they’d come in and then they’d bring dogs and they were fully combat ready. They had machine guns and they had shotguns and they had plastic bullet guns – they had all sorts of guns,” he recalled.
“And they come in and they would terrorise you and then they’d move you to another cell. They were shouting. Telling you ‘we’re gonna sort you out and who do you think you are, we’re gonna kill you.’ It was pure terrorosm, psychological. We were told we wouldn’t be leaving this prison.”
Paddy said that he witnessed Palestinian prisoners being treated with “disdain” in the facility. “They are treated like they are not even humans.”
“ I seen this Palestinian prisoner that way down, further down the block, and he was chained, hand to feet bent over, blindfolded and a dog barking at him.”
Paddy described the IDF as a “savage regime of hate.”
“They were full of hate. They would point their machine guns at us through the mesh of the doors, with the light from their guns landing on us. We would be lying in our beds and they would make all kinds of threats to upset you.”
He and the group tried to show their resistance, kicking doors, refusing to cooperate with the guards and shouting their support for Palestine.
Neil asked if Paddy had ever “feared the worst” while imprisoned. Paddy said: “You never knew what was going to happen from one moment to the next. You really did not know. There were no consulates or embassies allowed in. The Israelis entertained no one and the world has let them get away with that up to this point. No one ever held them accountable to anything.”
After days of detainment, they were released and brought to the airport to be transported home. After having no contact with his family, Paddy was relieved to be home, and worried about them.
“It was my choice to do what I wanted to do. I could not sit at home anymore doing just nothing. I was getting up every morning looking at the news and thinking if it was my children, my grandchildren, I would want to know that there was someone coming to help. I fully intend on doing it all over again,” he said, with plans for another flotilla in the new year.
“The world needs to wake up to what is going on here. These Palestinians are the nicest people, salt of the earth people, I have met many of them on my journey. They are the most beautiful people, and an example for humanity for the suffering they have endured. They are incredible.”
