On a warm, sunny afternoon, in a park next to Kingston Point Beach, Liam Henrie sat cross-legged. "I am all right," he said, looking at the ground, picking at bits of grass and rubbing them between his fingers. "I’m very happy to be home in Kingston, and doing things like making myself dinner and hanging out with my friends and getting groceries, and, like, normal people things."
We were talking on a Tuesday afternoon, and Liam had only been back in the U.S. since Sunday. It had been a rough few days. "I was beaten, I was kicked, punched. And I also was forced to kneel on the ground and on the deck of a ship for multiple hours."
All of this, Liam told me, happened after he was apprehended by the Israeli military.
About a week ago, Liam was on board a ship called La Cirena, one of about 50 boats sailing the Mediterranean. They were part of a group called the Global Sumud Flotilla - an international organization which regularly sends ships to Gaza on what they describe as missions to “uphold human dignity.” Liam says his boat was carrying humanitarian aid.
"We were around 200 nautical miles from Gaza," he recalled. It was sort of mid-late morning, and there was a large 200-foot-long gray military vessel driving back and forth, and evidently sort of jamming our communications. We had a satellite internet connection, and it would go out whenever the boat got close to us."
He quickly realized they were being intercepted by the Israeli navy. As the military ship got closer, Liam says, his boat’s radio signal went out, and was replaced with loud music coming from the Israeli ship. He looked over the side of La Sirena, and saw a speedboat racing towards them. There were about a dozen Israeli soldiers aboard, guns drawn. The soldiers shouted at Liam and his crew to walk to the front of the boat. If they didn't, they would open fire.
Liam and his shipmates did as they were told. They went to the front of the boat, where they were ordered to the ground and loaded into the speedboat at gunpoint. The soldiers told them to remove their jackets, and started zooming back towards the large grey ship, splashing through 5-foot waves.
"I was, like, drenched," Liam said. "It was literally head to toe, hair, clothing, everything completely soaked in seawater. Very cold. And they also - I wear prescription glasses. They took my glasses off and threw them in the sea."
They also threw his shoes overboard. When they got to the larger boat, Liam and his fellow prisoners were herded into a shipping container that had been retrofitted as a detention facility. "I was forced to lie face down in, essentially, a pile of other people. I was on top of other people who had been apprehended, and other people were sort of lying on top of me."
After a while, a group of soldiers grabbed Liam by the neck and forced him to the ground. He says they tied his hands behind his back, and repeatedly stepped on them. And they didn't stop there. "They start kicking me. I just kind of lie there, cover my face, don’t say anything. One man leaned over and said, ‘Welcome to Israel.’ They hit me in the face a few more times. They tried to pull me upright. I went limp. They hit me in the side of the head."
At no point, according to Liam, was he told why any of this was happening, or what he and the other prisoners were accused of.
I reached out to Israel Defense Forces, and sent them detailed descriptions of the alleged physical abuse in this story. A spokesperson said that IDF "rejects allegations of abuse by IDF soldiers during the operations to protect the legal naval security blockade. IDF orders require respectful and appropriate treatment of flotilla participants on the intercepted vessels, and there are clear and established procedures in this regard. No specific incidents of deviation from these binding procedures are known within the IDF."
I also asked them what prompted the interception. IDF said "the maritime area adjacent to Gaza is subject to a naval blockade imposed for security reasons in accordance with international law, aimed at preventing smuggling and terrorist activity that endanger the security of the State of Israel and its civilians." They added that the flotilla participants were asked to change course several times before Israeli officials boarded their boats.
As Liam described his experiences on Tuesday, two other members of the Global Sumud Flotilla missions, Fredi Guevara and Brigid Slattery, sat next to him, also picking at the grass. This was actually the second time Liam has been captured by the Israelis - Fredi and Brigid were with him the first time. Fredi told me that similar things happened to her when her boat was seized. "One officer - a female officer - grabbed me by my hair, and pulled me back a little bit, and then slammed my head to the ground a few times."
I asked Fredi what exactly the boats were carrying.
"There was food, medicine, school supplies, water..." she replied.
"Things like rice, pasta, non-perishable canned and dried food," Liam added.
"Do you know what became of those items after the interceptions?" I asked.
"Most of our ships were left adrift in the middle of the Mediterranean, after they had done a lot of damage," said Fredi. "They very deliberately ruined the ship as much as they could. I was watching, personally, as they were taking me away from my ship. They had left a couple of Israeli soldiers on my vessel, and I was watching them kick the steering wheel off the boat.
I sent IDF a description of these allegations as well, but they didn’t address them in their reply.
I asked Liam, Fredi, and Brigid what made them join the Flotilla missions in the first place. Liam told me he’s believed for his whole life that the people of Palestine are “victims of a violent colonial system that is displacing them, disenfranchising them, and killing them.” He says he knew the mission would likely be intercepted, but that it was worth doing anyway - to make a point. The idea, he said, was "to use this, in much the way that other acts of civil disobedience have been used before, to highlight the failings of state systems and the use of violence in a situation that is not actually justifiable."
Both Brigid and Fredi felt a particular responsibility to get involved, as Americans. "I think we have a very special and very potent connection to this cause as the United States is currently Israel's biggest funder and supporter," said Fredi.
"So," I said, "I'm sure you guys have seen a lot of the comments from people who are not supportive of this mission. You've seen them say things like this is a propaganda effort. This is part of Hamas' effort to make it seem like their cause is just. I know that you've seen all these criticisms. For people who see all of this as Israel's right to defend itself - what is your reaction to those criticisms?"
Brigid answered first.
"I would say that those who would accuse those who are part of the mission or those who are supportive of the mission as being victims of Hamas propaganda are themselves victims of Israeli propaganda, and that they might do well to think on that."
Liam dismissed the criticisms as well. "I think that it seems like a contradictory statement to say that, like, you know, the flotilla is a bunch of activists wasting their time, or you know, it's the selfie flotilla, or whatever. And then at the same time, to say that it's like funded by Hamas, we're bringing weapons, or whatever, and like these accusations that we're bringing drugs, all these sort of things. They are simply saying anything that they can to discredit it, even when those statements are themselves - they contradict one another. You know, we can't be a bunch of stupid influencers, and also suicide bombers or something at the same time."
Brigid, Fredi, and Liam all say they will continue the work they’ve been doing. That it’s worth everything they say they were subjected to as part of the Flotilla.
"We have the privilege to, to go through these experiences and be able to come home to our families safely and tell our stories," said Fredi.
Liam agreed. "If any of the descriptions of violence from the three of us is unsettling or frightening to anybody, it's just like…there's kids who are going through this every day, and they've been in there for months or years. So just remember that."
