McDonald condemns targeting of Israelis but defends party colleague’s tweet
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has condemned the targeting of Israeli civilians by Palestinian militant group Hamas, describing it as “truly horrific”.
Ms McDonald’s comments come following criticism of the sharing of Palestinian flags on X, formerly known as Twitter, by a number of Sinn Féin TDs in the wake of the attack which saw young people shot as they fled for their lives at a music festival. Some were taken hostage.
Dublin Bay South TD Chris Andrews tweeted: “It seems that according to the EU and Ireland only Palestine has no right to defend itself against murder, torture and Apartheid…” in response to a tweet by president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Ms McDonald said the targeting and taking hostage of civilians is to be “condemned outright”, but said the “bombardment now of Gaza is equally to be condemned”.
She said: “But my feeling overall in this scenario is one of alarm because this is now a very, very dangerous situation, but also feeling a very, very deep frustration.
“Because the truth is that, for decades, the Israeli state has breached international law daily with collective punishment, annexation and confiscation of lands, imposing an apartheid regime denying the Palestinian people their absolute legitimate right to self-determination.”
When asked about the tweet from her party colleague, Mr Andrews, which appeared to have supported Hamas, Ms McDonald said he is “quite correct to call out the fact that the international community has consistently looked the other way”.
“What I will say is that the response to this situation of conflict or lack of response by the international community has made a very, very difficult and dangerous situation all the more difficult and all the more dangerous,” she told .
“What happened at the weekend in terms of targeting civilians, and hostage-taking is not on,” she said.
Ms McDonald also said that while visiting the West Bank, she met with the leadership of Hamas, the group responsible for the latest attack.
“We should know in Ireland, if you’re serious and that’s the thing, if you are serious about achieving a ceasefire, which is necessarily a path to peace and respect for international law in a conflict situation, you meet and talk to everybody because that’s the only way that you can find a pathway forward,” she said.
She said she believes the international community has “not alone looked the other way” over the conflict, but “in some ways has facilitated the breach of international law”.
“I know that across all the Oireachtas there is a widespread consensus in terms of the need to recognise the Palestinian state in terms of condemnation of annexation and confiscation of Palestinian lands,” she said.
