Waterford Councillor John Hearne recounts terrifying flotilla journey to Gaza

In an interview with the Waterford News and Star this week, as the Global Sumud Flotilla's 40 plus boats were intercepted by Israeli defence forces, Councillor John Hearne recounted his experience of being detained in prison after the Israeli military seized the flotilla he was on, in an attempt to break the blockade on Gaza in 2011.

Cllr Hearne had been inspired to join the flotilla after seeing the devastating loss of lives on the Mavi Marmara 2010 flotilla. Eight people were killed on that occasion by Israeli soldiers in an attempt to break the Israeli maritime blockade.

After this event, it was difficult to convince people to join a flotilla. 

Hearne said, “There was always an excuse for them not to go.”

Originally, there were supposed to be 10 ships and over a thousand activists, but by the time the activists set sail, there were just two boats and a few dozen activists. The group planned to set sail from Greece to Turkey and then on to Gaza.

Members of the 2011 flotilla included Paul Murphy, Trevor Horgan (rugby player), Chris Andrews (Fianna Fáil Councillor), Billy Smith (an engineer from Dunmore East), as well as teachers, poets and trade unionists.

“Civil society was going to stand up for a civil society. It was the civil society, not the governments, who were coming to the aid of Palestinians,” Hearne explained.

When docked in Greece, Hearne said that the government and local authorities were openly hostile towards the activists. 

He told the Waterford News and Star, “I’m not a person that gets afraid, but I remember thinking, this is the wrong place to be.”

While docked in Turkey, the propeller on their boat, the Saoirse, had been “blown up”. Hearne maintains that this was done by the Israeli secret service. 

He said Turkish people they met in pubs, “would be telling us who the Israelis were.” They had an explosives expert called Phil McCullough, who was able to confirm that explosives were used to sabotage the boat.

Hearne has been on several flotillas in his lifetime and said that despite being a fisherman, he is unlucky when it comes to boats. 

He said, “Every boat I’ve been on has sank. Except for Saoirse, which was blown up.”

When in Turkey before heading to Gaza, Hearne was accosted by the Turkish authorities on two occasions and put in the back of a police van. He told the News and Star that they questioned his reason for being in Turkey and warned him not to sail to Gaza. 

Hearne told the police he was standing up for the Turkish men and women who had been killed by Israeli forces the previous year in the Mavi Marmara flotilla.

However, this was only the beginning of their troubles.

Hearne knew at the time that it was not a question of if the Israeli military would intercept the boat, but when.

“You just write yourself off,” said Hearne.

When the Israeli soldiers boarded the boat, they put a gun to Hearne’s head and told them to do exactly as they said.

Hearne told the News and Star that he told the soldier to “shoot or shut up”. 

Hearne said the group of activists refused to disembark from the boat, wanting to secure their status as kidnapped victims rather than political prisoners.

Hearne said the soldiers caused significant damage to the boat and stole, among other things, the Irish flag. 

“They were robbers,” said Hearne, “That’s the last thing you want to be known for.” 

The wheelhouse was “like a disco” with the sniper's beads trained onto every activist on the boat.

They were escorted to the port of Ashdod in Israel. This is the same place where the current activists involved in the Global Sumud Flotilla are being held.

They were shackled to the floor of a bus and taken to a military prison.

In the prison, they were strip-searched and sent to 16-person cells. Chris Andrews, a Fianna Fáil Councillor at the time, was John Hearne's bunkmate.

“I’ll never eat hummus again,” Hearne said, referring to the poor quality of food served in the Israeli prison.

According to Hearne, on the first day in prison, they were presented with documents to sign. 

They were told that if they signed the documents, they would be deported back to Ireland the very next day. However, signing the documents would mean admitting to entering Israel illegally, making them criminals.

“There was never even a question of whether we would sign it; we were never going to sign it,” Hearne said.

According to Hearne, they were frequently threatened with physical violence. They spent eight days in total in prison.

They were “dragged to court” but refused to participate once again, stating they were kidnapped victims, not political prisoners. 

All the activists were given suspended sentences and barred from Israel for five years, despite not having ever been before a judge.

The first thing he did when he got home was have a pint in Larchville.

A few weeks later, Pat Sheehan (Sinn Féin politician, former Provisional Irish Republican Army member and hunger striker at the Maze Prison) called John Hearne and asked him to go to Egypt the very next day.

“Like in the movies” he was smuggled across the Sinai desert and into Gaza. They were escorted by the Egyptian army.

Alongside a United Nations delegation, Hearne said they were the first outside group in Gaza after the last war ended.

After the previous war in 2010, Gaza was lacking basic services, Hearne said. 

“There was no water, no shower, no way to wash your clothes. 

“We met the fisherman’s union, we met the communist party, we met PLO, Fatah, we met every group we could meet, and we kept trying to sell them the same thing; the peace process we had because it was so successful.” 

The mayor of Gaza City gave them a civic reception, and they were made members of the Bedouin tribe.

Now, almost 15 years later, the councillor reflected on the differences between his experience and the current flotilla. 

“The beauty of this flotilla is that there are so many of them and they’re so credible.” 

Hearne feels hopeful about the future for Palestine, saying, “The Palestinians have faith in their cause. The world has faith in the Palestinian cause. The Palestinians can’t be beaten. It's inevitable they will get a state.” 

When asked what he would say to the activists currently detained in Israel, he said, “You know why you’re there, you’re there for the Palestinians.” 

He went on to add, “Things are wrong, and they have to be righted.”