There were around 15 Irish citizens onboard the flotilla that are now detained by Israel, according to organisers. Hundreds more participants from other countries have also been detained.<\/p>\n
In a video on social media, Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is shown walking among some of the detainees and saying they should remain in prison for a long time.<\/p>\n
![\"Itamar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/002465da-614.jpg\"\/)
\nThe footage shows Itamar Ben-Gvir heckling the detained activists<\/p>\n
The footage shows some people kneeling on the ground in tightly packed groups with their hands tied behind their backs.<\/p>\n
The footage also shows Mr Ben-Gvir heckling and waving an Israeli flag among the detained activists.<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach is due to visit the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace during which he will raise the matter with Mr Macron, with the two leaders also set to discuss the Middle East, Ukraine and EU security.<\/p>\n
T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris said the “actions of the Israeli government towards illegally detained members of the Sumud Flotilla, including Irish and EU citizens, is disgusting and cannot be consequence free.”<\/p>\n
In a statement he described the forcible detention of the activists as a “further clear breach of international law”.<\/p>\n
He added: “Illegally detaining citizens in international waters and then degrading them. It is despicable.<\/p>\n
Condemnation is important but not enough.”<\/p>\n
Mr Harris said he fully supports the work being done by the Taoiseach and Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee and that he intends to raise it with fellow European People Party leaders.<\/p>\n
“There must be a strong, unambiguous EU response and I reiterate the calls for the suspension of trade elements of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.<\/p>\n
“This has been our consistent position as a country. It is long past time for Europe to act,” Mr Harris said.<\/p>\n
Watch: Itamar Ben-Gvir posted video taunting flotilla activists<\/p>\n
\n
Visit ahead of EU presidency<\/p>\n
Mr Martin’s visit is part of preparations as Ireland takes up the presidency of the EU Council for six months from July.<\/p>\n
The EU Council is the group of heads of state and ministers from the 27 EU countries’ governments.<\/p>\n
It is in charge of legislation and involves gatherings of EU ministers who have similar briefs, for example, the Foreign Affairs Council.<\/p>\n
Ireland will take responsibility for planning and chairing EU Council meetings and negotiations and representing the council in discussions with the European Parliament and European Commission.<\/p>\n
There will be approximately 30,000 delegates coming to Ireland over the six-month period, with meetings taking place over four-and-a-half months when the breaks over August and the Christmas period are excluded.<\/p>\n
Departmental officials are also finalising Ireland’s policy priorities, which are to be published next month.<\/p>\n
![\"French](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/00241594-614.jpg\"\/)
\nThe Taoiseach and French President Emmanuel Macron will also discuss the Middle East and Ukraine<\/p>\n
The leaders will discuss preparations for the presidency and the focus on competitiveness, the EU’s next budget and security, as well as EU enlargement, as part of Ireland’s tenure.<\/p>\n
The two leaders will also discuss international issues such as the conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said Ireland would be taking the helm of the EU Council presidency at “a time of great challenge and uncertainty” in the world.<\/p>\n
“I look forward to discussing with President Macron his priorities for our term in office and how we can work together to improve the lives of Europe’s citizens and enterprises,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said: “I will brief the president on our plans to focus on improving EU competitiveness, negotiating the Union’s next budget and security.<\/p>\n
“We will also seek to make progress on EU enlargement.<\/p>\n
“I also look forward to discussing global challenges, including conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine.”<\/p>\n
While in Paris, Mr Martin will visit the Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI) , where he will announce the launch of a new archival project to improve access to historic documents related to Ireland in French archives.<\/p>\n
With the Paris branch of Conradh na Gaeilge, the Taoiseach will present a copy of the first English-Irish dictionary, An Focloir Bearla-Gaoidheilge, or Begly’s Dictionary, which was first published in Paris in 1732, to the CCI.<\/p>\n
He will also deliver the keynote address at the conference, Tearmann thar Toinn: The Irish Language in Europe.<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach said: “Bilateral relations between France and Ireland are excellent at all levels – political, economic, cultural and people-to-people – underpinned by our historical friendship and shared EU membership,” Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n
“While in Paris, I am also looking forward to marking the deep cultural ties and shared heritage with France through a number of events at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, the home of Irish culture in France.<\/p>\n
“I will launch the Journey to Europe: Archives of the Irish in France project, which will identify and digitise material of significant Irish interest housed in French archives.”<\/p>\n
This project, he said, “will improve our understanding of our deep historical relationship”.<\/p>\n
“In my keynote address, I will also reflect on the Irish language in Europe, both past and present, as we continue to promote our native language as a vibrant part of our cultural identity,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin is to raise Israel’s treatment of EU citizens from the Global Sumud Flotilla with French…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-459688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459688","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=459688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}