GENERAL FEATURES
Homo Truths
Here's the full version of our Homo Truths interview with gay man, Shane Dillon, who was on the flotilla to Gaza invaded by israeli forces in May.
By Jeanette Rehnstrom
My brother Owen is a musician in the band Kila and has always been very interested in the Palestine Israel issues. Recently he was contacted by a man from the Free Gaza movement to see if he wanted to go on the flotilla but as my brother has just become a father he said that he would be unable to. The man then asked if he knew anyone that would be able to sail one of the boats, and as I had spent 11 years on Irish and British merchant ships Owen was quick to offer my name.
The captain and I went to Greece a few days before we were due to sail to check the ship Challenger One and fixing it up as necessary. Eventually a date was settled on for departure and I was prepped on all the safety procedures so as to pass this information on to activists and journalist that were to board.
We went to the Greek end of Cyprus to pick up a Swedish MP and some other people, but the Cypriots would not let anyone get on. So we sailed to the Turkish side, did some more repairs, but again nobody was allowed to board. However, as the Swedish MP was of Turkish decent he was able to negotiate with the authorities and managed to get allowed to get on ship along with a Swedish doctor and the Swedish writer Henning Mankell.
In the end we sailed with 21 people on board but transferred a few people when we had met up with the flotilla in international waters, such as, the Swedish people went on to the ship carrying the Swedish aid etcetera.
From the start we had some problems with satellites being jammed etc. as the Israelis were trying to make it difficult for us to meet up with the rest of the ships.
On Sunday at 11pm we began to get calls from the Israel's armed forces requesting our position, information as to where we were going, and asking for us to report to their port of Ashdod, advising us that if we entered Palestinian waters we were in a conflict zone. We had the chairwoman of the Free Gaza movement onboard and it was she that communicated with the Israelis on our behalf.
We were listening in to the radio communications of the other vessels and heard the captain of the leading ship The Mavi Marmara inform the Israeli defence forces of that if they attacked any of the ships, or the people aboard, that it would be them that would be responsible for any harm caused. Then the contact went silent and most of our communications were jammed.
The Israelis began to arrive in a variety of boats. We knew that they would begin to try to board, but they did not board our ship. However, they did attack the Mavi Marmara. We heard and/or saw the Israelis use of stun grenades, tear gas and tazer guns, while the passengers and crew onboard were defending their ship by throwing rubbish bags and fire fighting equipment hoses to make the takeover a bit more difficult.
Then the skipper on Challenger One and I decided to make a run away from the flotilla to get our satellites working again so as to send out images to the newsrooms. However, we were soon impeded by a problem with our engine whilst the Israelis threatened to ram us and surrounded us with helicopters that were dropping illumination flairs. Finally, we had to stop and they boarded. The only resistance on our part was verbal as well as that we had blocked the deck with fenders. Nevertheless, the Israelis were indiscriminately firing paintball guns at close range. In one incident a paintball broke the nose of one of the women onboard. The Israelis then proceeded to smash all the windows of the accommodation and the stern door. After that all the passengers of the boat were pushed unto deck to stand in the middle of all the smashed glass.
The Israeli armed forces were extra physically aggressive with the two women on board who were senior activists in the Free Gaza Movement. They were also quite physically violent with a Sidney Herald journalist and photographer and their equipment.
The Israelis more or less knew who was onboard what ship but were a bit confused by the transfers that we had done in international waters. They knew their targets and treated them accordingly.
I was allowed to go get the First Aid kit to treat the ones that had been hurt. Thereafter, the Israelis fixed up the boat, cleaned up the mess, stopped the jamming of satellites and we were escorted to Israel.
Four hours later we were the first boat into the port of Ashdod. All the passengers had been told to stay inside, and the Israelis had put curtains up over the damaged areas so that to anyone watching us arrive there would be nothing apparently wrong with the vessel.
I was paraded in front of the media as the first person off the flotilla but was not allowed to talk to anyone. I was escorted up to the processing tent. They asked for my name, and asked me to sign some paperwork, but I refused. To me my boat had been taken by pirates at sea, I had been kidnapped to go to a country that I never had meant to go to, and now they were requesting my signature to say that I was to be deported from this country. It was all absurd.
They took me up to the detention centre and I was kept in a cell for four hours on my own. I was strip searched. They took my clothes, phone, cash and wallet. It was fairly standard that the Israelis took personal belongings and money that were never returned. I was refused phone-calls and smokes. During the night they left the lights on, played music, moved us from cell to cell, and then finally in the morning the Irish ambassador arrived. He said that he had been informed of my whereabouts at midnight the night before. He also told me that people had been killed on the Mavi Marmara.
I had never been scared for my life throughout this whole procedure, as I had been briefed by previous activists as to what could happen when the Israelis boarded the boat, however, this changed everything. It was very upsetting and worrying. People around me were also in shock and disbelief. Some people started to pray.
The only talking I did to the Israeli media was when they approached me outside of the detention cell window. They asked me some relevant questions that could have been seen as probing but then they also asked me if I was aware of that the Turkish based humanitarian group IHH was a terrorist group, whilst it is only deemed such in Israel but in no other country in the world. Thereafter the questioning was abruptly stopped by the soldiers.
When I came back to Ireland I was mobbed by the media. My brother and my nephew and niece were there to meet me. The Canadian media took a photo of me hugging my niece and put the caption under it saying that I was hugging my girlfriend. She is 17. My brother has been teasing me since that I am to pay all his child maintenance from now on.
My being gay had little to do with anything during this whole situation, the perhaps only thing we did was to flirt with the Israeli soldiers, both male and female, but this was done in an effort to make them feel as uncomfortable as they were making us feel. We were saying things like: "You have beautiful eyes. Can we see the rest of your face." (they were wearing balaclavas).
My time since coming back has been extremely busy. I have been meeting with the minister of foreign affairs Micheál Martin, who has shown a great deal of interest and concern. However, The Israeli ambassador to Ireland has been unavailable for anything that I have took part in.
I think there should be an international enquiry into the events, a boycott on Israeli goods and sanctions on Israel should be put into place. I am not anti Israel. I have Israeli friends and would like to visit the country one day under different circumstances. I believe in the possibility of a two part state, like here in Ireland, but something's got to change. The Israelis could have handled this whole situation a lot better. Apart from that they do go overboard in many other areas, such as, having banned toys, school materials, things that are completely innocuous. Nevertheless, with the focus solely on this situation with the peace flotilla there is no doubt that this was a brutal attack of piracy in international waters, something that the Israelis should answer for.
All the merchant vessels in the flotilla were set at the lowest security risk rating. The Israelis were aware of this. All of that which had been put on the boats should have been of no worry to Israel. The whole operation was extremely well policed.
There was condemnation in some of the Israeli media as to the violence that had been used. But we were also informed of that some of the people that had been taken off later incoming ships had been beaten up in front of an Israeli public (made mostly up of students from local schools and universities). It gives one chills imagining this, and reminded me of the manner in which the Nazi's handled the Jews during WW2. It is such a shame to see a country in such a state of fear that it acts in this way.
After all this I would hope to go on another aid trip. I believe in the purpose of it. Also, I don't believe that the Israelis would ever be able to act like this again.