Ireland’s President Catherine Connolly on Monday publicly backed her sister, who was detained by the IDF while attempting to breach the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, Politico reported.
Dr. Margaret Connolly, a general practitioner from the northwestern Irish town of Sligo, was among at least six Irish nationals aboard the flotilla when Israeli naval commandos intercepted and boarded the vessel in the Mediterranean.
President Catherine Connolly, an independent socialist who assumed Ireland's largely ceremonial head of state role in October, commented on the arrest immediately following an official audience with Britain's King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.
“I’m very proud of my sister but I’m also very worried about her," President Connolly stated to reporters, as quoted by Politico. “I’ve been very busy today … I haven’t really had a chance to get details in relation to my sister and indeed, equally importantly, her colleagues on the boat."
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs swiftly dismantled the humanitarian narrative surrounding the ships, releasing footage of the detainees and labeling the operation a calculated publicity stunt.
The Ministry dismissed the flotilla as “a provocation for the sake of provocation" that had set sail “to serve Hamas, to divert attention from Hamas’ refusal to disarm, and to obstruct progress on President Trump’s peace plan."
In a pre-recorded propaganda video released by the activists upon her arrest, a defiant Dr. Connolly wore an outline map of Ireland and held up her national passport to attack the Jewish State.
“If you are watching this video, it means I have been kidnapped from my boat in the flotilla by the Israeli occupying forces and am now being held illegally in an Israeli prison," she claimed. “The cause of Palestine is the moral compass of our time. It is what makes us human. Palestinians will save our humanity."
President Connolly sparked outrage before being elected when she described the Hamas terrorist organization as “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people."
Although she later claimed to “utterly condemn" Hamas’s actions, she simultaneously accused Israel of committing “genocide" in Gaza. She has also labeled Israel as “behaving like a terrorist state."
She succeeded Michael Higgins as Ireland’s 10th president and the third woman to hold the office. Higgins himself stirred up controversy when he lashed out at Israel two years ago.
Responding to Israel’s shuttering its embassy in Dublin due to Ireland’s anti-Israel actions, Higgins said that its accusations that the Irish people are antisemitic are a “gross defamation" and “deep slander", while claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is in breach of so many bits of international law and has breached the sovereignty of Lebanon, Syria and would like to have settlement in Egypt."
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to Higgins and said, “Once an antisemitic liar - always an antisemitic liar."
Last January, Higgins took advantage of his speech at an event in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day to criticize Israel.