Ireland’s president ‘proud’ of sister detained by Israel en route to Gaza – POLITICO

Earlier, the Israeli Foreign 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.”

Israel’s foreign press department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

In Dublin, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement it was “actively monitoring” what was happening to the flotilla, which activists were live-streaming Monday as Israeli vessels intercepted and boarded their ships at sea. Most of the flotilla had departed Sunday from the Turkish port of Marmaris, some after sailing from Italy.

Flotilla activists issued a pre-recorded message from Margaret Connolly in conjunction with their announcement of her detention by Israel.

“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 said, holding her Irish passport in her right hand and wearing a T-shirt bearing an outline map of Ireland.

“The cause of Palestine is the moral compass of our time. It is what makes us human,” she added in the video. “Palestinians will save our humanity.”

Margaret Connolly’s detention at sea coincided with the start of her sister’s three-day visit to the U.K. as Ireland’s head of state.

During her Buckingham Palace meeting with the king, President Connolly issued an official invitation to the monarch to visit Ireland. Charles’ late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2011 became the only reigning British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since its 1922 independence.