Hearing scheduled in July for Irish pro-Palestinian activist detained in West Bank
A hearing in Israel for an Irish woman who is the subject of an
Israeli
deportation order
has been scheduled for next month, according to the pro-Palestinian activist group she was volunteering with in the
West Bank.
According to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Máire ní Mhurchú, also known as 'D' Murphy (70), was brought to a hearing on Wednesday. She is currently detained in Givon Prison in the Israeli city of Ramla after challenging the deportation order made against her following
her arrest in the West Bank last weekend.
The group said she was not given legal representation or an opportunity to obtain legal advice and refused to participate in the proceedings.
Her hearing has been scheduled for July.
READ MORE
According to an ISM statement, Ms Murphy 'informed her family, via a phone call she was allowed to make, that she was deliberately given the wrong number for her lawyer.
'The last time Murphy was able to speak to the lawyer was on Monday, and as of today we still do not know the outcome of the hearing. These tactics of denying legal advice are not new to activists standing in solidarity with Palestinians as Israeli authorities continue to act with impunity.'
The Israeli police and the Israeli ambassador responsible for Ireland, Dana Erlich, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Dublin said c it is providing consular assistance and, as per protocol, does not comment on the details of individual cases.
Ms Murphy was detained by Israeli police on May 31st near Khalet al-Daba'a, a Palestinian village that has been largely demolished by Israeli forces, along with Swedish activist Susanne Björk (48).
Ms Björk left Israel on Monday after a deportation order was also made against her.
Both women deny that the grounds on which the orders were made against them and, in particular, deny failing to comply with an order to leave a military zone by Israeli soldiers.
A video provided to The Irish Times shows the women at Khalet al-Daba'a speaking with three Israeli soldiers who handed them back their passports and told them 'to have a good walk and a good day.'
Ms Murphy, who is from Cork but lives in Wales, is a founding member of Swansea Palestine Community Link and was previously detained in 2011, when she travelled to Israel with the group.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
As Palestinians starve an hour's drive away in Gaza, here in Israel, everyone went to the beach
June is here. Summer has arrived. And the beaches in Tel Aviv are full. Just an hour's drive away, two million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation. The incongruity of those few words and the bizarre contrast of imagery – the busy beach in Tel Aviv, the dystopia in Gaza – are hard to digest, I imagine, for many in Ireland. They are perhaps shocking, incomprehensible, and sickening even. This, however, is the reality of life, and of course death, here in Israel and nearby Gaza. Writing those words does not come with judgment. I am simply observing. I also went to the beach in Tel Aviv last weekend. My photograph accompanies the digital version of this article. I recently returned from a 10-day holiday in Spain with my two young daughters. As we descended into Ben Gurion airport, I was struck by the casual announcement of the El Al air stewardess when she politely requested passengers to donate to the spare change program to support children in need in Israel. I wondered if, when hearing those words, 'children in need in Israel', any of my fellow passengers thought for a moment about the estimated 18,000 Palestinian children dead in Gaza and the hundreds of thousands more on the brink of famine. Israelis find themselves now living between two realities. There is the dystopian reality of Gaza next door, and then there is life in Israel, which has returned to relative normality. Yes, some 23 living hostages remain in Gaza, tens of thousands of reservists have been called up, and every week there are sirens because of incoming missiles from Yemen. But the restaurants are full. Schools are open. Each morning you wake up to make your kids' lunch. The skyline of Tel Aviv is dotted with hundreds of cranes. So how do ordinary Israelis grapple with the dichotomy of a largely known reality of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and everyday, often banal life in Israel? A recent opinion piece I wrote in these pages and which I shared on social media – about how the mainstream Israeli media continues to ignore the reality of the truths in Gaza – provoked a critical reaction from some Israeli friends. The conversations I have had over the past week or two largely replicated those I have had with Israelis over the past 18 months of war. READ MORE These difficult conversations illustrate how Israelis justify or internalise the reality of the unfolding horror in Gaza next door to them; how many (not all) refuse to look, or choose not to accept the truths of that horror. There is a clear pattern. At first there's denial, then dismissal and finally, if the discussion continues, disqualification. Denial is essentially an attempt at 'whataboutery' type deflection. There are invariably a few core talking points, each with a kernel of truth. Each is used, I believe, if not to justify Israeli actions in Gaza, but certainly to assuage the conscience of those who voice them. (If there is a risk of sweeping generalisation here, it is a risk I believe is worth taking.) 'There are no innocents in Gaza.' This is repeated ad nauseam. In the context of the deaths of thousands of children, it is particularly egregious to hear. 'Hamas was elected.' Yes, it was. It topped the vote back in 2006 – almost 20 years ago. Opinion polls do, however, continue to show some popular support for Hamas in Gaza. 'Hamas uses civilians as human shields.' This is undeniable. The reality that, in a highly dense urban environment like Gaza, Israeli air strikes will inevitably result in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, is often disturbingly shrugged off. [ Seeing Israel use hunger as a weapon of war is monstrous to me as someone with a Holocaust legacy Opens in new window ] 'Hamas brought this upon themselves.' At its crudest, this is the schoolyard retort, the contemporary 'they started it'. Everything apparently began with the savagery of the terrorist attack on the morning of Oct 7th, 2023, when 1,200 Israelis were murdered in a few short hours. The brutality of 50-plus years of occupation is ignored. The second stage is dismissal. Dismissal essentially questions the motives of the person who challenges the Israeli consensus. I have been accused of being 'woke', 'virtue signalling' and a lot worse. In the dismissal stage, the attention switches from a denial of the facts to a focus on the tone or language of the conversation at hand. This is often used to bring admittedly heated conversations to an abrupt end. If the conversation continues, the final and third stage is disqualification. This is the othering phase. You lack the essential rights to criticise. You are delegitimised as not 'Israeli enough', unable to grasp the weight and struggles of Jewish history. The undeniable exponential rise in global anti-Semitism raises its head here. Deflection, dismissal and disqualification can at times follow each other in a matter of very short minutes. I have come to understand that the Israelis who cling to them do so as a personal coping mechanism. To acknowledge or accept that the state they hold so dear, a refuge from the Holocaust, is capable of genocide, of war crimes, of imposing starvation on two million people is emotionally crushing. This is not about media censorship, but self-deception. The truth is simply too difficult to bear. So, a heartfelt message to my fellow Israelis. Outspoken opposition to Binyamin Netanyahu is not enough. Publicly calling for an end to the war is insufficient. It is not necessary to embrace the labels 'war crimes', 'genocide' or 'ethnic cleansing'. It is necessary to recognise the reality of the horror unleashed by the Israeli state on Gaza, to acknowledge the depths and scale of the humanitarian catastrophe. I understand many of my fellow Israelis are psychologically and politically broken following the trauma of October 7th. But claims of deniability of what has happened and is happening in Gaza in our name will not be ignored. Indifference will not be forgiven. Silence will not be forgotten. Paul Kearns is an Irish-born freelance journalist based in Tel Aviv
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Colm Keena takes a closer look at St Stephen Green properties
Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour broke down in tears as he described the suffering of children amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Video: Reuters
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Children at west Dublin asylum seeker accommodation witnessed friends being ‘put in the back of a black van'
Children living at an International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) centre in west Dublin said 'everyone was crying' and they were prevented from saying goodbye to their three friends who were picked up by Garda immigration officers for deportation on Wednesday morning. Three siblings, Amira (14), Richard (12) and King (7), were among 35 people, including two other children, deported on a flight from Dublin to Lagos, Nigeria on Wednesday night. They had lived at their accommodation, provided by the IPAS in west Dublin since January 2022 with their mother and father and attended schools six Luas stops away. On Thursday Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan said returning people whose applications have been refused and who have had deportation orders issued against them is 'the foundation of any modern rules-based immigration process'. READ MORE On Friday afternoon, the children's classmates from St James's Primary School and CBS James's Street having arrived home, described what they witnessed on Wednesday morning. 'I was downstairs having breakfast,' says Kimberly (7). 'I saw five men come into the place and they go to their room. Then I saw the girl crying. They were putting their things in the van. I feel sad now.' Her mother, Pearl Chitatariso, was on her way home from work at 8am when she got a call from a friend getting Kimberly and other children ready for school. 'They were crying. They told me their friends were being deported. The children were so hurt. They said they could not say goodbye to their friends. It was very traumatising.' Farhiya Ali, a mother living with her four children in the centre, said: 'The kids were coming down for breakfast when these five men wearing cargo pants, big jackets arrived. 'They came into the third floor, stood in front of the bedroom door, took the three kids back in and told them to pack up. We heard them say: 'You are going to be deported'. As soon as the other children heard then they were all crying. It was such a horrific scene. 'The family were not given time to process what was going on. It was all in 15 minutes. They were put in the back of a black van. For my kids to witness that it was not good. The way the situation was handled was traumatising not only for the children but for all of us.' She said one of her children will not come out of his room. 'They think the gardaí is coming to get them next. To do that to children, that was real injustice.' A number of the children, gathered around in their St James's primary school uniforms on Friday, said they tried to say goodbye to Amira, Richard and King but were prevented from talking to them. 'We knew they were going to the airport,' said a girl, aged about eight. 'Everyone was crying. When we tried to say goodbye the five men said we shouldn't even talk to them. They were making them ignore us. They didn't let us talk to them.' Another girl said: 'They were very sad. The mum was crying. They were carrying their bags. It was bad. They won't let them in Europe again.' Asked how the process could have been handled differently Ms Chitatariso said: 'I believe they should have waited until the other kids have gone to school. Now it is something that they won't forget. They keep on talking about it.' Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council said: 'Deporting children as they prepare for school is shocking. This is not what Ireland stands for. 'We urge the Government to work with families in these situations, explore voluntary return more thoroughly and provide support, guidance, and sufficient time – currently just five days – for people to consider this option.' The Department of Justice has been contacted for comment.
