{"id":106411,"date":"2025-10-07T07:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/106411\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T07:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T07:54:07","slug":"irish-flotilla-activists-say-they-were-victims-of-petty-and-extreme-cruelties-in-israel-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/106411\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish flotilla activists say they were victims of \u2018petty and extreme cruelties\u2019 in Israel \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish activists who arrived to Ireland late on Monday night have said they were treated with \u201cpetty and extreme cruelties\u201d by Israeli<\/a> authorities and endured \u201creally unpleasant\u201d conditions while they were detained.<\/p>\n

Sarah Clancy, Thomas McCune and Donna Schwarz were the first to arrive to Ireland after being detained alongside 13 other Irish citizens following the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla last week.<\/p>\n

The remaining activists are scheduled to arrive to Ireland by Wednesday, with the exception of Michael Fix, a dual Irish-US citizen.<\/p>\n

A crowd of family members, friends and supporters gathered at Dublin Airport on Monday night in advance of their arrival, carrying large Palestinian flags and chanting: \u201cFree Palestine\u201d and \u201cenact the Occupied Territories Bill\u201d.<\/p>\n

Moments after entering the terminal\u2019s arrivals lounge to applause and cheers, Ms Clancy said it was the \u201cabsolute pleasure of my life\u201d to take part in the flotilla, describing it as a \u201cmoment of hope at a time of great crisis for all of us\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Clancy (left) and Donna Schwarz arrive home to Dublin Airport after detention in Israel. Photograph: Bryan Meade <\/p>\n

Ms Clancy described recent days in Ktzi\u2019ot Prison, a large detention facility usually used for Palestinians in the Negev desert, as \u201coverwhelming\u201d and \u201creally unpleasant\u201d, though she added she can \u201conly imagine\u201d the conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n

After her vessel was intercepted and boarded last week, she said they were taken through a \u201cPR customs process\u201d at Ashdod port, where their possessions were confiscated and they were forced to kneel as they were filmed by Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0US lawmakers intensify warnings to Taoiseach over Occupied Territories BillOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, Greta Thunberg<\/a> was made to kneel beside an Israeli flag while people marched around her, taking her photo,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

They were subsequently brought to Ktzi\u2019ot Prison, she said, where they were subject to \u201cpetty and extreme cruelties\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose which happened to us can only be a fraction of what happens to the people usually incarcerated there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said men and women were detained in separate areas, adding that her group of women had no access to mattresses, toilet paper or sanitary towels.<\/p>\n

She said she could see these items \u201cat the end of the corridor\u201d, but \u201cthey just wouldn\u2019t give them to us\u201d.<\/p>\n

The group also had no access to clean drinking water, she said, with those detained resorting to drinking \u201cfilthy\u201d tap water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t receive food at all until the evening of the second day that we were there. The food that we did receive was absolutely awful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The activists were also awoken on several occasions \u201cfor no reason during the night\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel outraged at the absolute criminal impunity with which they\u2019re being allowed to act,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Thomas McCune, meanwhile, said some activists detained were denied medication such as insulin for diabetes.<\/p>\n

He said he was housed in a cell with 10 others, all of whom were denied recreation time, clean drinking water and food, for a period, saying one French activist was \u201cbeaten\u201d at one point.<\/p>\n

He said he worried for those still detained and for Palestinian prisoners who \u201care facing a much longer and much more intense form of torture\u201d.<\/p>\n

Family members present, including Mr McCune\u2019s aunt, Marie, said they \u201cfeared the worst\u201d while they were detained.<\/p>\n

Ms Clancy\u2019s wife, Anne Mulhall, meanwhile, described recent days as an \u201cincredibly worrying time\u201d, though added that she is \u201cincredibly proud\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t over, this is going to keep going, and we\u2019re going to keep putting pressure on our governments, and I know that Sarah and other people who put their lives on the line in order to make the world and our governments sit up and pay attention, they\u2019re not going to stop either,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish activists who arrived to Ireland late on Monday night have said they were treated with \u201cpetty and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,26,18,13,14,3761,6,19,17,71,3857,11,12,15,16,5,72,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-106411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin-airport","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-gaza-strip","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-israel","19":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-palestine","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}