{"id":285957,"date":"2026-02-07T16:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T16:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/285957\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T16:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T16:46:07","slug":"use-of-irish-airport-for-us-deportation-flights-to-israel-called-reprehensible-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/285957\/","title":{"rendered":"Use of Irish airport for US deportation flights to Israel called \u2018reprehensible\u2019 | Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politicians in Ireland<\/a> have said the use of an airport in County Clare by planes deporting Palestinians from the US to Israel is \u201creprehensible\u201d.<\/p>\n

A private jet owned by the Donald Trump donor Gil Dezer<\/a> was chartered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for two separate flights that took detainees to Israel, a Guardian investigation revealed this week.<\/p>\n

The flights left the US on 21 January and 1 February. Both made refuelling stops at Shannon airport in the west of Ireland.<\/p>\n

Dezer\u2019s family property company has built a series of Trump-branded residential towers in Miami. He recently spoke of his \u201clove\u201d for the US president, with whom he claims to have had a 20-year friendship.<\/p>\n

Some of those onboard the flights on Dezer\u2019s jet said they had their wrists and ankles shackled for the duration of the journey. After arriving in Tel Aviv, they appear to have been taken to the Israeli-occupied West Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Irish government said in a statement that as the flights stopped in the country for \u201cnon-traffic purposes\u201d and were \u201cnot picking up or setting down passengers\u201d they did not require prior approval from its transport department.<\/p>\n

However, on Friday, opposition politicians expressed concern to the Irish Times<\/a> about the practice.<\/p>\n

Duncan Smith, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Labour party in Ireland, said: \u201cIt is absolutely reprehensible that any ICE deportation flights would be allowed stop and refuel in Shannon. The taoiseach and minister for transport must intervene and ensure this ends.\u201d He added: \u201cIreland cannot in any way be complicit in these ICE flights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roderic O\u2019Gorman, leader of the country\u2019s Green party, said that it was \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d to learn \u201cthat Shannon is being used to facilitate the cruel actions of Donald Trump\u2019s ICE\u201d.<\/p>\n

Patricia Stephenson, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Social Democrats, said the government \u201cmust make a statement on whether it knowingly facilitated these flights\u201d. She told the Irish Times that she believed the human rights of those onboard had been violated.<\/p>\n

Dezer\u2019s aircraft was chartered via Journey Aviation, a company based in Florida that is regularly used by the US authorities to source private jets. It declined to comment on the flights to Israel.<\/p>\n

According to Human Rights First (HRF), which tracks deportation flights, Dezer\u2019s jet \u2013 which he has described as his \u201cfavourite toy\u201d \u2013 was first chartered for removal flights last October. The organisation said the plane had been used to fly detainees to Kenya, Liberia, Guinea and Eswatini, before its recent trips to Israel.<\/p>\n

One of those onboard the first flight was Maher Awad, 24. Originally from the West Bank, he has lived in the US for almost a decade. He has a partner and baby in Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey dropped us off like animals on the side of the road,\u201d Awad said. \u201cWe went to a local house, we knocked on the door, we were like: \u2018Please help us out\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email, Dezer told the Guardian he was \u201cnever privy to the names\u201d of those who travelled onboard his jet when it was privately chartered by Journey, or the purpose of the flight. \u201cThe only thing I\u2019m notified about is the dates of use,\u201d he said. He did not respond to further questions about the use of his jet by the Trump administration to deport Palestinians through Israel.<\/p>\n

Aviation industry sources have estimated the flights would have cost ICE between $400,000 and $500,000.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not answer questions about the deportation flights to Israel, but said: \u201cIf a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Politicians in Ireland have said the use of an airport in County Clare by planes deporting Palestinians from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-285957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}