“At a time when Israel is shooting dead Palestinian men, women, & children as they queue for food – with 90% of the population facing acute food shortages – the success of this mission couldn’t be more important.”
From Sinn Féin
The newly-appointed Convenor of the Ireland-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group, Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, has expressed solidarity with activists who are participating in the Freedom Flotilla to bring aid to Gaza, and those witnessing the ongoing Israeli campaign of ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank.
Teachta Ó Snodaigh said: “Many people across Ireland are closely following the journey of the Madleen boat as part of the Freedom Flotilla from Sicily to break the siege of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to a starving people. At a time when Israel is shooting dead Palestinian men, women, and children as they queue for food, and with 90% of the population facing acute food shortages, the success of this mission could not be more important.
As someone who participated in Freedom Flotillas to Gaza in the past, I understand well the nervousness and uncertainty that those on the Madleen must be feeling as they see surveillance drones flying overhead in the dark of the Mediterranean night, and I wish them courage and tenacity. We in Sinn Féin will be thinking especially of our Left Group colleague, Rima Hassan MEP, who joins environmentalist Greta Thunberg and others from around the world on this odyssey for peace and justice.
We also commend the Irish involved in the land crew for the Flotilla, including activist Caoimhe Butterly, actor Liam Cunningham, and Senator Lynn Ruane. I am also conscious that an Irishwoman in her 70s, D Murphy, is currently in Israeli detention and fighting deportation after she bore witness to the ethnic cleansing by Israel of the Palestinian village of Khalet Al-Daba’a. Residents of the village in the occupied West Bank, which has seen 90% of homes and infrastructure demolished by Israel, were forcibly removed, along with D and other international solidarity activists, when Israeli forces declared it a ‘closed military zone’ in the context of ever-expanding illegal settlements, with a further 22 Israeli settlements announced on Palestinian land just last week.
Sinn Féin extends our solidarity to D who is being punished not for any crime or breach of the law, but for witnessing Israel breaking the law, and we wish her well in her appeal against deportation. Israel must allow safe passage to essential humanitarian assistance and free human rights activists who have done nothing wrong. We also commit to doing everything we can in the Dáil to oppose the genocide, ethnic cleansing, and occupation of Palestinians by the Israeli apartheid regime.”
- Aengus Ó Snodaigh is a TD for Dublin South Central and Convenor of the Ireland-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
- This article is taken from Sinn Féin’s email bulletin published on 6/6/2025.
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon.
