Dr. Connolly, now a political prisoner of the Israeli military, on her experiences with the Global Sumud mission to Gaza.
Dr. Margaret Connolly is a humanitarian activist with the newest version of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which has been sailing to Gaza in an attempt to deliver food and medical aid to besieged Palestinian civilians since April 10. Over the past two days, the Israeli military intercepted the entire flotilla, boarding its vessels approximately 250 nautical miles from the coast of Gaza in a blatant act of piracy. Dr. Connolly, along with many other volunteers from around the world, is now a political prisoner in Israeli custody. Coincidentally, she is also the sister of Ireland’s President Catherine Connolly, who says she is “very proud” of her sibling.
Dr. Connolly recently appeared as a guest on the Katie Halper Show, calling in from the Mediterranean. The transcript has been lightly edited for grammar and clarity.
Katie Halper
How are you? Tell us where you are right now, and what you are doing, and what has been happening.
Margaret Connolly
Okay. A little bit of stress there trying to get through to you on the computer, because I’m a paper doctor. Seriously though, I am on the flotilla. As you know, Katie, I’m a GP, a general practitioner in Sligo. I came on the flotilla as a mark of respect and a mark of solidarity to the Palestinian people. I am 67 years of age. I have three grown-up children, and I’ve been politically active most of my life. As you know, I come from a large family, 14 children, and probably class consciousness comes in at a very early age[...]
So all my life I’ve been political. I’m married to [Sligo County Councillor] Declan Bree in the last two years, but we lived together 40 years, and as you know, we have been involved in anti-apartheid. And the Palestinian cause is so close to the South African cause. As Nelson Mandela said, “Unless the Palestinians are free, nobody is free.” Their humanity is our humanity. And I have joined the flotilla, the biggest Global Sumud Flotilla to sail to Gaza, this one. We intend to try and break open a humanitarian corridor to bring much-needed food, fuel, and aid to the Palestinians. We may not succeed, but it is a huge mark of solidarity with them.
Unfortunately, [on April 30], the Israeli forces traveled over 1,000 kilometers outside their borders to kidnap and abduct 174 of our activists, completely normal, regular, peaceful human beings. They destroyed or incapacitated over 22 of our boats. But the rest of us have pressed on. We have been at anchorage for the last five, six days because of a very heavy storm.
I’m not really allowed to say where we are at the moment, but we are in international waters heading toward the Gaza coast, but may stop along the way. I am even more saddened, in despair and infuriated at the international community—our so-called bloody international community—tolerating with impunity the ignorant, vicious regime that is apartheid Israel.
They are not fit to sit in the United Nations. They should be barred from the United Nations. I call on our Irish government to stop the U.S. military using our airspace and using Shannon Airport to disembark. They have had at least 8,000 military transferred across Irish airspace, and we know because the Dáil said it, our government, they answered the questions.
If there’s 8,000 troops, there’s a lot more on those planes than they’re letting on. We are a neutral country. We should not let [the U.S.] military traverse our country to drop bombs on other countries. It’s shameful. And [Taoiseach of Ireland] Micheál Martin has brought shame on us all by transgressing our neutrality. We call for an immediate enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill to bar all sales of goods from the occupied territories. Everything that is produced in the occupied territories should be barred, with the full aim to completely disconnect from all economic ties with Israel. We should disconnect from all sporting ties, all musical ties, everything. All our universities should cease all contact with Israel. It is even worse than apartheid South Africa, which was a bloody nightmare, but the Israeli racist Zionist regime is even worse.
We cannot and must not turn our faces away. And as you know, Katie, the Irish people have had 800 years of colonization by the English Crown. We lost a million and a half people with the famine in 1845, and we have produced over 10 million refugees that have left our shores to seek a better life elsewhere from 1845 on.
We have an intimate knowledge of pain, despair, dislocation, dispossession, you name it. Probably ethnic cleansing would have definitely covered the term, but they said it was our fault that the potato famine failed. Well, guess what? Ethnic cleansing and genocide is being enacted by the Israeli regime with the full backing of America, who provides nearly 95 percent of armaments to Israel. The U.S. and Germany provide that much. Italy, France, and England have also been guilty of providing components. And I know Ireland has also been involved with the economics of the EU, so we are also caught up in this. I say shame on our government that they are not calling out this genocide. The history speaks the truth, as Norman Finkelstein says.
The Israelis know well what they have done. They have recorded all their destruction going back to 1948 and before. Every single little village that has been annihilated, they know what they have done. They bloody know. In 1948, 80 percent of the land had disappeared from the Palestinians. By 1967 after the Six-Day War, they had taken over 95 percent.
How in God’s name is that a just society? How do we allow this to happen? And I, for one, am very happy to be on this flotilla, no matter what happens, because I’ll be able to look at whatever is in the universe when I die and say, “I tried to do my best.” I do not want to be afraid of an Israeli regime coming to kidnap and abduct me.
As an Irish citizen, I have a right to be in this flotilla, and so have all my comrades. They have no right to do what they have done, and they are complicit, the European governments, in helping Israel get away with this. They could not have brought us to shore and travel on a bus up to Heraklion Airport without some involvement of the Greek parliament, I’m sorry to say. But it is happening all the time.
Watch Dr. Connolly’s interview on the Katie Halper Show:
Halper
And so —
Connolly
I’m sorry to go on.
Halper
No, no, no. This is amazing. So what happened to you, and what has happened to Thiago [Ávila] and Saif [Abu Keshek], the two organizers who [were imprisoned by Israel after the April 30 boat interceptions?]
Margaret Connolly
When I went on the Six One News in Dublin, my first thing to say was, “Our hearts go out to Thiago and Saif.” Thiago actually came to my boat to offer comfort to me that I would be minded, seen. Not that I was special, but you know the situation. Saif I didn’t know, but my friends and comrades have known. This ship right beside us was boarded. We were sure we were going to be boarded. We were ten meters from them.
We had the protocol in place. We set up on the dock of the ship, and we waited our turn. And when they didn’t come, we just took off, and luckily we got to the safety of Crete. But we know for sure that the two boys have been abducted, kidnapped. And the Palestinian lad may be—has suffered, probably, many beatings and torture.
And we say, “For Jesus Christ’s sake, if he’s up there, what is this about?” Those two comrades were on this ship to bring aid to Gaza. Israel has put an illegal blockade, an open concentration camp exists in Gaza, for 18 years. How is this possible in the 21st century? They are live-streaming their genocide.
How ignorant, debased, dehumanized these soldiers have become that they think it’s funny to do this! I say to them, “I pity your children that have inherited your traits and will pass it on to their children because you cannot see the humanity in others. You have debased yourself before the world.” And they are allowed to get away with it.
I was thinking all day today, what would I say? I think the Israeli state should be dismantled. Let the Palestinians sit at a table with them. Let there be a truth commission, and give back at least 50 or 60 percent of the land to the Palestinians, who have always been there, are the indigenous people, have the keys to their farms.
Let the Israelis go looking under 20 tons of rubble to find the houses and homes they have destroyed, and let them hang their faces in shame, because they should be ashamed. It may take generations for them to show grief, but we cannot, absolutely cannot, allow this regime to continue. And the Americans handing bombs over and then handing Easter eggs out on the lawn on Easter Sunday is absolutely revolting to me. They had gone in and dropped bombs on a school in Iran, Kate, on the 28th of February, and that Mr. Trump dares to hand out Easter eggs to children two weeks later for Easter. How sick is he? And how sick is the rich, bloody cabal of men that have control over the whole world while 60 percent live in poverty?
Everywhere the white man has gone has brought, I think, pestilence and evil and destruction. I cannot think of a single continent that the white man has gone to that they have not brought evil, destruction, murder, and death. How dare we tell the Arabs how to live their lives? Withdraw your military bases, Mr. Trump, from the East and from every part of the world where you do not belong. Put cultural bases there at the will of the locals, but withdraw your bloody soldiers and all your military bases. How dare you think you are the policemen of the world? You are so ignorant and so cruel and so violent, you cannot even see it.
But you need to put a camp around your country and not be allowed outside your border, because all you have done is brought destruction to the world. And how dare you do this to the Palestinians, who actually helped the Jews when they came in the ’20s and ’30s and offered them food and drink and land, until they realized they were being taken for a joke, and the Zionist regime had already plotted and planned what they were going to do.
Why didn’t they take the state of Bavaria, clear it out after the war, hand it over to the Jews, and say, “We’re so sorry for wiping you out?” Why should they get away with handing over the Palestinian state?
Halper
Exactly.
Connolly
And we know this in Ireland. We know this in Ireland. Our hearts beat with the Palestinians. More than any other country, we have had 800 years of colonization. They stole our language. They stole our tongue. They stole our souls and they sold us into slavery. How dare the Americans, the Germans, and the Europeans do this to the Palestinians? It is utterly sickening.
Halper
Well, people are really inspired by your words, Dr. Connolly, as am I. I wanted to ask you what it was like when you saw the kidnapping? And also, if you’ve been doing anything as a medic—have you been able to attend to anyone’s wounds, or were you not even given access to the people who have been hurt so far?
Connolly
I’m just a medic for this boat, Katie, and I’m sorry if I’m shouting[...] I had to go downstairs when we saw the drones coming and the warship coming at us. We were up on the bow, so we saw this huge light coming. So my job was to go downstairs, get dressed, put on warm clothing, and get the medical bag. So when I did that, Kate, it turned out I missed the interception on the boat nearby us.
But my crew members absolutely videoed it all. It is for real. This is not a video game. Twelve to 13 huge men in huge helmets and all in black with laser [guided] guns. One of the guys said that was an automatic. They can laser and show and kill anyone on the boats. We sort of drifted away, so we didn’t see what happened in the end.
And I didn’t offer help, because I’m only the medic on my boat. But we knew that the other boat was in trouble. It wasn’t Saif and Thiago, but they caught 22 boats that night, 174 activists, and I know some of them were violently treated, as were Saif and Thiago. I think their comrades tried to protect them, and hence there was back and forth and there was broken ribs and broken noses. But I did not personally see this because I was down in the hold getting the medicine bag together and hoping that the Israeli forces would allow me to bring my bag with my medicines for my comrades should we be arrested.
Halper
Wow. And, Dr. Connolly, your sister is—
Connolly
Call me Margaret.
Halper
Okay, Margaret. And your sister is the president [of Ireland].
Connolly
I’m here in my own right, Katie. I’m not here as the president’s sister. But she is the president of Ireland, and she speaks out clearly for the Palestinian cause.
Halper
Right. Yes, she’s actually called it genocide.
Connolly
What other word could you call it, Katie? She’s speaking the truth. She is not afraid to speak the truth. The president speaks the truth.
Halper
And is that something that you were raised with, both of you, this sense of truth and commitment to justice? Did your parents, or your dad, ever talk about Palestine when you were growing up?
Connolly
I think justice starts in your home, Kate, and when you grow up with not having very much, you bloody learn to share. You learn not to tell lies. My father was very Christian, probably very religious, but he was also very loving, and the main thing we learned was not to look down on others. There’s a saying, there but for the grace of God go I. We learned to share at a very early age. We had to help each other. My sisters had to mind us when my mom died. It was just a sense of absolute honesty. My father was a small builder. He had to earn money and provide food for the 14 of us, but I never, ever, ever heard him complain or bitch or give out or badmouth somebody else.
We just learned to tolerate others. We never looked on others as “others.” They were just people we didn’t know or that we had to get to know. So yes, I would say we came from a very loving home. I’m sure my mother helped all her neighbors, even though she had 14 children, and we all have that huge sense of justice or injustice.
We cannot bear it. There’s different professions, different jobs in the family. Each and every one of us has stood up for justice, no matter where. We weren’t in, we didn’t have the Palestinian cause at that stage when we were four, five, and six. But you don’t have to read books to know what justice is.
You just know you’re either being humiliated or shamed or looked down upon. You just have it in your heart. I say to Mr. Trump, you have no heart, no empathy. You could not know what love is. I don’t know what they did to destroy you when you were a child, but I’m so bloody glad I had Colman Connolly as my father and not your father. Because love was taught to us at an early age. So we have love and justice in our DNA. We don’t have to read books to learn about this cause or that cause. But of course, the Palestinian cause is the most important cause in the whole world. We cannot get away from this genocide, and we are facilitating in it, and we must stop it.
It has to be stopped. I pray that we will not need another flotilla to sail to Gaza. This concentration camp must be disbanded forthwith. They cannot lock 2.2 million people into an area the fifth of [the size of] my Sligo County. It is absolutely evil. They must give back the occupied territories, and they must be stopped in their genocide.
America could stop the war in the morning and stop the genocide. Cut it. I don’t care what hold the Israeli Zionists have over the American government. It is sick, and Irish people are not behind them. Jobs for the Irish people in the tech company do not equate with being held to ransom by Trump because we’re afraid to speak the truth.
Irish people are behind the Palestinian cause. The demonstrations have shown that again and again and again. If not for them, what about us when they come for us? We must stand up for them. Jim Larkin, our trade union leader, said in 1922, “The great only appear great because we are on our knees. Let us rise up.”
Halper
Wow, that’s amazing. And Margaret, as a doctor—I’m sure that you have to go, and thank you for your generous time. Just a final question for you, what is it like for you as a doctor to see what is being done to the people of Gaza? And Lebanon, Palestine, Iran—
Connolly
I want to pull my eyes out, take my ears out, and cut my tongue out. Words could not describe the sickening, horrific feeling—that little babies in incubators have their oxygen cut, that the doctors watch the little babies die that they have worked so hard to save. That surgeons and cardiologists and oncologists are murdered and burnt in hospitals trying to save their patients. That paramedics and nurses are killed as they go to help others. That journalists from within are targeted. You’re a journalist. There’s no journalist allowed into Gaza to witness what is happening. Does that not show the evil that is happening, if journalists are not allowed in to show it up? My hat’s off, I congratulate the poor journalists that have been murdered and slaughtered.
I don’t think how the Israelis will ever, ever hold their heads up again and look somebody in the eye and say, “I did this.” Why don’t the recruits just walk away from the army? They will not be assassinated. The worst that could happen is they’ll be locked up in jail. Why don’t they just refuse to condone this genocide?
Why don’t they take off all their gear and just look at the Palestinian lad covered in dirt and filth because they’re not allowed to have clean water? We’re on a little boat. I haven’t had a shower in a week. We’re blessed to have a little tap bringing in the seawater. The Palestinians in the refugee camps don’t even have the cleanliness to wash their hands, or wash their children’s bums, or change their nappies.
It is utterly sickening. The figures are staggering, Kate, for the people that have been murdered and slaughtered and amputated and injured. Never mind, it’s probably double that figure that lie under the rubble. They say it will take 20 to 30 years to clear the rubble. What have they destroyed? And the last comment, the son-in-law of Trump calling it a piece of real estate.
What do they want a piece of real estate in Gaza for? Stay in your own bloody country. All you do is spread pestilence. We do not need holiday resorts. We need the Palestinians to be given back their land. You go in and clear all that rubble and chemicals and toxic stuff that you have put in their land. Clean it up for them, and put back the olive trees, and at least give them back their houses. Pay reparations. But stop the bloody genocide because we are sick of what you’re getting away with. It is grossly evil, and words fail me, even though you may laugh and say I’m speaking too fast. I want to cut my tongue out because no words can describe the pain that we feel, never mind what they’re going through.
I have 14 siblings. The idea of a bomb falling on my house, I can’t even credit it. I have two beautiful daughters and a son. The idea of them being taken out by special forces in the middle of the night, raped, tortured, attacked for being a Palestinian is just... it makes me feel like I want to vomit, Kate, right now this minute as I talk to you, to be honest.
Halper
Wow. Well, thank you so much for everything you do. This is so incredibly moving and important, and you made so many amazing points. And we’re so appreciative.
Is there anything else you want to add, about what’s next for you? You probably can’t say too much, but—
Connolly
I want Micheál Martin and the Irish government to stand up for the Irish people and all the comrades on this flotilla. It is a humanitarian, peaceful flotilla. We have a right to travel the seas. The Mediterranean is international waters. The bloody Israeli occupying force have no right to come a thousand kilometers to catch us, to throw drones on us, to look at us, to persecute us, to abduct us, to kidnap, to do what they want. Let us stand up, Micheál Martin, and say, “This is evil personified. Let there be no more genocide. We do not want it.” We have 800 years of colonization. Just think about what we have suffered, and it should stop you supporting the EU and Mr. Trump in this genocide. It is gross. It’s beyond words. There’s no words left. I hate the English language for the words that they have made us learn, for genocide and war and rapine and every other nasty word that white people have brought to people of color.
It is total racism. It is total war and dominance and greed. Power, the “might is right,” is not a good way to raise your children. Go back home and learn empathy. And if you can’t, at least stay in your home and don’t go out marauding and murdering others. You have no right to do this. It is not your world.
You do not dominate us. You do not own us. We have fought for our freedom. We have our freedom. Let us stand up for the men and women of 1916 who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Let us honor them by doing the right thing. It’s the least we can do.
Halper
Well, Dr. Margaret Connolly, thank you so much for everything that you do, and stay safe. And please come back on with another update whenever you can.
Connolly
Thanks, Katie.
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