Deep in an Israeli prison, Samuel Leason thought long and hard about what message he could send his parents back home in Ōtaki that would reassure them he was okay. He wasn’t okay.
The flotilla he joined to deliver aid to the starving people of Gaza had been intercepted by the Israelis and the 18-year-old was in Ketziot Prison in southern Israel. He was hungry, having had very little food, he’d been treated “like an animal” by the guards. It was day three of his incarceration and he had just one shot at communicating with his family via the British High Commission, so he wrote: “When I get home, can I have nachos?”
“At that point I was a bit scared, and I was very hungry. It was definitely a very rough time, but I didn’t want my family back home to be too worried about me.”
Leason describes himself as a Catholic anarchist – someone who “follows their conscience and the wisdom of the church” and is “not under the authority of anyone else”. He jumped at the chance to do something – anything – to help the people of Gaza. He was on a gap year after leaving Kapiti College last year and became one of three New Zealanders, and the youngest of 462 activists from 44 different countries, who were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla of more than 40 vessels on a mission to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.
He flew to Barcelona in August and joined the mission after a few days’ training and preparation, shaking hands with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg along the way. He says he slept in a parking building near the harbour to be close to the preparations.
On September 1, he left for the famine-stricken territory with other activists on one of the lead vessels, the 30m Sirius. The activists wanted to break Israel’s naval blockade and open a sea corridor to Gaza, and draw attention to atrocities in the strip. “We had many boxes of baby formula, rice, medical aid and bandages, because all the hospitals in Gaza had been bombed and thousands of children were starving,” says Leason. “We also brought toys for the children.”
As well as Thunberg, the flotilla included the late Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, and several European politicians. Two other New Zealanders, Rana Hamida, who arrived in New Zealand as a refugee from Palestine in 2013, and Youssef Sammour, a civil engineer who grew up here in a Christian-Palestinian family, were also on board.
On October 1, the convoy of 42 civilian vessels was intercepted in international waters.
Like father, like son
Leason’s father, Adi, says his son, the sixth of his eight children, is deeply influenced by his Christian faith, having grown up in a Catholic Worker community in Ōtaki.
Adi himself is no stranger to activism. In 2008, he was one of three men who slashed and deflated a protective dome over the Waihopai spy base near Blenheim, causing damage put at $1.2 million. The “Waihopai Three” were acquitted after arguing their disruption to satellite transmissions was justified by the greater good of saving lives in Iraq.
His son believes taking part in an aid flotilla to Gaza takes precedence over adherence to any “do not travel” advisory from the New Zealand government. He found out about the flotilla during an online search after following the Middle Eastern conflict on social media.
“I thought if I had the opportunity to do something, I would, but my excuse was that I’m just an 18-year-old boy from New Zealand on the other side of the world – what can I do to help people who can’t repay me? But I signed up.”
His determination to help was such that earlier this year, Leason built a cabin and sold it to a family friend in Ōtaki to help pay for his airfare.
Drones target Flotilla
The Sirius was one of dozens of boats intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters during the night of October 1. Leason says drones attacked nine of the surrounding flotilla boats, causing small fires aboard the vessels. While none hit the Sirius, he says he feared for his life.
“That was very scary, we could hear explosions and see flashes and drones flying around.”
About 8.30pm, Israeli occupation forces boarded the Sirius and other boats, pointed guns in activists’ faces, took their passports, and cut communication.
“They made us sit all night on a wooden bench out on the deck. They took my pounamu, which had been given to me by my godmother, and my mandolin, which was very precious to me.”
The BBC reported that communication lines were jammed and the VHF radio which was used for emergency communication started playing music from the Swedish band ABBA, possibly due to the peculiar fixation of the Israeli state on the participation of Thunberg, the Swedish national who was on the other lead boat, the Alma, which had earlier been intercepted.
Before being forced to disembark, all activists on the intercepted boats threw their phones overboard, fearing authorities might use information on confiscated devices.
Leason, now home in Ōtaki, says the interception in international waters was unlawful.
“It’s completely illegal. It’s a full-on major war crime committed against 44 different nationalities. We were peacefully sailing on a non-violent flotilla to bring aid and break the illegal siege on Palestine. I don’t know why there hasn’t been more news coverage on this.”
Amnesty International also criticised Israel for blocking the flotilla, saying it was an act of intimidation intended to punish and silence critics of Israel’s genocide and its unlawful blockade on Gaza.
Many of the activists, including Hamida, participated in a hunger strike as a protest against the blockade.
All the activists on the intercepted vessels were taken to Ketziot Prison, a detention facility in the Negev Desert in southern Israel known for its inhumane conditions. They were detained for just under a week without being permitted phone calls or access to lawyers.
All medication was taken off them once their boats were intercepted.
There was one guard who pointed a shotgun right in my face and said, ‘I will shoot, I will shoot.’
“We were 75 nautical miles [about 140km] from the coast of Gaza. But it took us a whole day for them to get us back to Israel,” Leason tells the Listener.
He was kept in a small cell that had 12 beds. But with up to 18 people in the cell, six, including Leason, had to sleep on the floor “on a really skinny mattress”. If they did manage to sleep, they would be woken several times a night by guards shining lights in their eyes and pressing guns to their faces.
Leason’s cell was opposite Youssef Sammour’s cell, but the two Kiwis neither saw nor heard from Hamida while they were imprisoned. “We were very worried about Rana. We didn’t know what was going on. Women were in a different cellblock to us.”
The men were given food, including crackers, after their boat was intercepted, but it was minimal. In prison, water came from a “rusty little tap” in the bathroom.
“The chemicals left our mouths dry and slimy – they didn’t give us any of the bottled water that they were drinking.”
Leason says one day, activists in his cell were visited after they complained of being deprived of medication such as insulin for those with diabetes.
“There was one guard who came into our cell, and I was pacing up and down on the middle of the floor and he pointed a shotgun right in my face and said, ‘I will shoot, I will shoot’. That was a very scary moment; there was a lot of hatred in his eyes.”
Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said he visited the prison to ensure the detained activists “received no special treatment” and said he was proud to treat flotilla activists as terror supporters, boasting about their harsh conditions and mistreatment.
Relayed messages
Consulate officials from the British High Commission were able to visit the prison and speak with Leason and others to check on their wellbeing. As Leason had no phone, they helped him to send a message to his worried family via our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).
Adi recalls when the family was relayed the message by MFAT officials. “They found Samuel, and they talked to him, and they said, ‘Do you have a message for anyone at home?’ The message was passed on to us, and the message about nachos to his mum, Shelley.”
Leason says he had no confirmation his message was passed on. He had heard nothing from the New Zealand Embassy. He was hungry and didn’t know when he would get his nachos. But his message had hit home, and Adi says it “conveyed everything we needed to know”.
Leason’s girlfriend, Lucia Campbell-Reeves, 18, an activist and student at Hagley College in Christchurch, was also relieved after the message came through. “It calmed us down a lot. It’s a classic example of Sam’s great humour – but it didn’t mean that he was all good – and he wasn’t.”
After nearly a week in captivity, Leason and other detainees were released and deported to Jordan.
“They came in at 4am and told us to get up. They put us in a van and blasted us with air cons so we were freezing, and they drove us all the way to the Jordan border.”
In Jordan, Leason was briefly given a phone to contact his parents.
“That was the first moment that we had direct contact,” Adi says. “He relayed some wonderful stories of sharing a cell with Nelson Mandela’s grandson, and being invited to South Africa for a barbecue, but also being confronted with an angry soldier who put a shotgun to his face.”
The evening after arriving in Jordan, the three New Zealanders travelled home via Dubai and Australia. After leaving New Zealand with a bag full of clothes and his mandolin, Leason arrived back with just a prison jumpsuit and the clothes he was wearing.
It’s completely illegal. We were peacefully sailing on a non-violent flotilla [in international waters].
While relieved to be back among friends and family and enjoying his freedom, he was also annoyed at the New Zealand government – for its lack of sanctions on Israel and failure to recognise Palestine as a state, as well as its lack of support for the Kiwis who were trying to help.
“I was very, very pissed, yes,” he said. “They are fully compliant in a genocide, with thousands of people being killed. I was illegally intercepted in international waters, put in a terrorist prison and treated like an animal – and when Christopher Luxon is asked by the media if that was a legal thing to happen, he dodges the question. It’s disgusting.”
Although Adi shares his son’s disappointment that the flotilla did not make it to Gaza, he also says he’s “extremely proud” of him.
“When a young person, my own son, wants to help somebody on the other side of the world and is able to put himself in harm’s way to help people who can’t repay him – that is what young people with a big heart do.”
His son adds: “It would have been amazing to break the illegal siege, but we did the best that we could, and for that I’m glad. It was 100% worth it, and I’d do it again.”
He also got his nachos. “As soon as I got back in New Zealand, Dad put a little bowl in front of me. It was delicious.”