President Connolly’s Sister Detained by Israel

In the wake of the ceasefire last Autumn and the eruption of the war with Iran at the end of February, Gaza has faded from the headlines somewhat. However, the consequences of a conflict that has been labelled a genocide by the United Nations have not gone away. The population of Gaza remains hemmed within the ‘Yellow Line‘, the ceasefire line that separates the 47% of Gaza that remains under Palestinian control from the 53% of the remainder that Israel currently occupies. With a final settlement elusive, some analysts believe the line could become the de-facto new border. In years to come, we may speak of the yellow line as often as we speak of the green line.

The conditions in what is left of Gaza are appalling. The British Red Cross describes the situation…

Despite the ceasefire, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains catastrophic. Every day has been a fight for survival for the people in Gaza. The collapse of the health system, coupled with continued fighting and the complete suspension of aid delivery for 11 weeks, led to an unprecedented rise in unmet humanitarian and medical needs…

Months without aid pushed malnutrition in Gaza to catastrophic levels, with children, pregnant women, and the elderly suffering the most. Medical teams are working tirelessly to provide emergency nutrition support, essential food supplements, and basic medical care.

The need is immense and immediate and whatever Israel says about the level of aid ‘flooding’ the territory, it is clearly not enough.

In order to draw attention back to what is happening, some independent organisations have attempted to breach the Israeli maritime blockade in an attempt to deliver aid to the beleaguered population. Such a delivery is, of course, symbolic. No independent third-party group can hope to meet the demands of the people of Gaza. The missions are symbolic by design, daring Israel to stop them and then broadcasting to the world Israel’s actions as it does, inevitably, intercept each flotilla and detain those on board. The most famous of these flotillas carried Swedish activist Greta Thunberg who as detained on two separate occasions (and it seems the Israeli government went out of their way to make her detentions as unpleasant as they could).

However, it is the most recent interception of a flotilla generating news in Ireland due to the detention of ten Irish citizens who were on board the flotilla and because the flotilla was in international waters when Israel forces conducted their interception. As per the RTÉ report

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has condemned the interception by Israel of an aid flotilla with at least 10 Irish citizens on board and called for the immediate release of those detained. The Government is calling on the Israeli authorities to uphold their obligations under international law.

“I strongly condemn the interception of boats in the Sumud flotilla in international waters and the detention of those on board by Israeli military forces, and call for their immediate release,” the Taoiseach said in a statement.

Mr Martin added that the Government is in direct contact with the Israeli authorities.

“The Government has raised concerns for the welfare of those detained with the Israeli authorities. “Such interceptions and detentions are wholly unacceptable and must stop. The Government will also discuss with EU partners how we can ensure the safety and wellbeing of our citizens”, he said.

One of the Irish citizens being detained is Margaret Connolly, sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly. According to this report in the Irish Examiner whilst the President was visiting Great Britain…

President Connolly said she is worried about her sister.

“It’s quite upsetting, and I’m very worried about her, and I’m also very concerned about her colleagues on board,” she said…

“… I met with King Charles. I haven’t really had a chance to get details in relation to my sister, and indeed equally importantly, her colleagues on the boat.”

Speaking in Irish, Ms Connolly referred to the fact that the incident had happened in international waters, saying she was “proud” of Dr Connolly.

There has been no contact with the Irish citizens detained by Israel however on past experience they will likely be brought to Israel proper, held in a detention centre, possibly compelled to watch a film depicting what happened during the October 7th attacks and then deported back to their home countries.

The Flotilla was organised by the ‘Global Sumud Flotilla‘ whose mission statement on their website declares

Emerging as a direct response to calls from Palestinians in Gaza, the Global Sumud Flotilla remains grounded in Palestinian leadership and powered by grassroots movements worldwide. Our purpose is to transform these missions into durable political power and a replicable model for global justice.

The word ‘Sumud’ itself means something like ‘unyielding steadfastness’ in Arabic and represents a Palestinian cultural value. Israel has accused the organisation of being a pro-Hamas grouping attempting to support the terror group but Israel has form for conflating criticism of what has been declared a genocide by the UN and criticism of the humanitarian catastrophe it has engineered in Gaza with supporting its enemies.

Israel also argues that if the Flotillas were really humanitarian, they could dock in Israel or Egypt and the aid could then be sent to Gaza, but this wilfully misses the point.

The point of the flotilla is to challenge the cause of the misery, Israel’s strangulation of the remainder of the strip through blockade and assault and to prick the wider world’s conscience, particularly those of global leaders, that they are standing by and leaving the burden of doing something to those motivated enough to give a damn, such as Margaret Connolly and the others with her.