Israel Kidnaps Irish President's Sister While U.S. Media Remains Silent

Dr Margaret Connolly, sister to Irish President Catherine Connolly, is currently under Israeli detention

Israeli naval forces boarded thirty nine vessels of the Global Sumud Flotilla on Monday morning, in international waters, approximately seventy nautical miles off the coast of Cyprus. The flotilla, sixty boats, some four hundred and twenty-six people from forty four countries, had departed Marmaris in Turkey four days earlier, carrying humanitarian aid and the standing demand that Israel’s eighteen-year naval blockade of Gaza be lifted. By mid-afternoon Irish time, at least sixteen boats had been seized and eight Irish citizens detained. Among them was Dr Margaret Connolly, a sixty-seven-year-old GP from Sligo, and the sister of the President of Ireland. The President has publicly stated that she is proud of her sister for taking part in the attempt to break the siege of Gaza. The Irish government has condemned the hostage taking by the Israeli regime.

Dr Connolly recorded a video before the raid, which her boat broadcast after her detention. Holding her Irish passport up to the camera, she said: “If you are watching this video, it means I have been kidnapped from my boat in the flotilla by Israeli occupying forces, and I’m now being held illegally in an Israeli prison.” Her husband, Sligo councillor Declan Bree, asked on RTÉ’s Six One News how many times the Israeli regime will be allowed to kidnap Irish citizens before the Irish government sanctions it. President Catherine Connolly, speaking to reporters in London after a meeting with King Charles, said she was very proud of her sister, and very worried.

The other Irish citizens detained have been named as Tom Deasy, Cormac O’Daly, Joshua St Leger, Louise McCormack, Catriona Graham, Helena Kearns, and Adam Fitzhenry Collier. Karen Moynihan, head of the Irish delegation, told the Press Association that over the past seven months thirty-three Irish citizens have been kidnapped by the Israeli regime, and that the Irish government is still considering whether to sanction Israel for it. The detainees are expected to be processed at the port of Ashdod, the same facility used for the activists seized off Crete last month, two of whom were held for ten days, beaten, and, in the case of one, charged with terrorism before being deported.

At the time of writing, we have been unable to locate any reporting of Dr Connolly’s detention in any major American outlet. Not the New York Times, not the Washington Post, not CNN, not NBC, and in the UK, currently not the BBC. Outlets in the UK, such as Sky News, have covered the news, however, the BBC have always been one of the more biased UK outlets when it comes to the topic of Israel.

The Associated Press filed the wholesale wire that the English-language press has been working from all day, and that wire, essentially being the source followed by the rest of the media covering the events. The wire from the AP quotes the Israeli foreign ministry at length and runs through Netanyahu’s congratulations to his navy in detail, however, their dedication to detail does not extend to the kidnapping of Dr Connolly, does not mention the Irish presidency, does not mention that the sister of a sitting world leader is among the people seized.

The pattern of Anglo-American press selective silence around Israeli violations of human rights and international law is undeniable, however, silence on an event of this magnitude is horrible to see. Whether seizing civilians from a humanitarian vessel in international waters constitutes piracy under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea is a question these outlets seem hard-pressed to tackle, as is the kidnapping of the magnitude of Dr. Connolly’s.

So now these outlets will wait, wait until the President’s sister has been returned, wait until the other hostages are release, then we can all expect these outlets to run the headline “Activists Released Following Israeli Arrest”. Frankly, in a world so filled with turmoil, we all deserve better journalism than this.

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