For some, the death threat tucked in a bouquet of flowers would have been a deal breaker. Others might have backed off the first time they came under Israeli army gunfire, or when their neighbour shot them, or simply at the explicit request of the Canadian government.
But for Kevin Neish, those were all warnings to be disregarded – blips in a lifelong campaign for social justice. And so it was with his usual disregard for official warnings and his own past experience that the 53-year-old Victoria resident joined an aid convoy intent on breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza. His job onboard: “human shield.”
Mr. Neish was reportedly in custody in Israel last night, hours after naval commandos stopped and boarded the flotilla in a violent encounter off the coast of Gaza. Supporters hadn’t heard from him as of Monday evening, nearly a day after his arrest along with 700 other pro-Palestinian activists. Ottawa said late Monday no Canadians were hurt in the raid.
The veteran activist and retired mechanics instructor was on his second trip to Gaza, friends said. He was believed to be on board the Challenger II, one of six ships in the flotilla carrying 600 people that is believed to be under guard in an Israeli port.
Mr. Neish joined the convoy as a human shield. Friends said he drew on his experience as a rugby player, blocking the hallway and taking a beating by soldiers so as to buy journalists on board his ship time to file stories in the event of being boarded.
“His role would be to stand in a narrow hallways and passively block the hallway if the soldiers were to come on the ship,” said Zoe Blunt, an environmental activist and a friend fo Mr. Neish's. “We’re hopeful that he’s alive and unhurt.”
He's previously undertaken similar missions in hostile environments such as Colombia and Cuba, one friend says.
"It's what Kevin does, it's what he believes in," friend Anne Hansen said from Victoria Monday.
"Basically, being an international citizen accompanying people in wartorn places, it gives to protetction to people who are under threat."
Friends and colleagues haven't heard from Mr. Neish since Thursday, when they received a text message from him saying that the Canadian embassy asked him not to join the mission.
"He told them instead, they should be asking Israel not to attack the aid convoy," Ms. Blunt said in a written statement.
Mr. Neish’s career as a social advocate started early. His father, Elgin (Scotty) Neish, was a B.C. fisherman, union leader and communist (Mr. Neish still has a photo of his parents with Fidel Castro). His mother was an outspoken feminist.
Elgin (Scotty) Neish and his wife Gladys, parents of captured Canadian Kevin Neish, meet with Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro during a labour union conference in Cuba.— Courtesy friends of the Neish family
“Throughout his whole life, he’s been concerned about human rights and social justice,” Ms. Hansen said.
Mr. Neish's older brother, Steven, said his brother has the proper demeanour for his activist streak.
"He has a very strong sense of social justice," Steven Neish said Monday. "He's got a good personality for it: very calm, very laid back, a non-violent person."
The elder Mr. Neish hadn't heard from his brother Monday evening, but said he was "disappointed" to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defending the action while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood nearby. He said Mr. Harper's presence and willingness to stand by Mr. Netanyahu while he addressed reporters spontaneously amounted to approval "that really gives them [Israel] a green light or more justification to do things like the things they've done. And that puts my brother in danger."
It's not like the younger Mr. Neish has ever avoided trouble, however. In 1989, as a 32-year-old employee of a Victoria labourers group, Mr. Neish went to Guatemala in the middle of an attempted coup as an escort to a Guatemalan labour lawyer.
