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AN IRISH PRO-PALESTINIAN activist is facing deportation from Israel this week after she was arrested by police in the occupied West Bank on Saturday.
Máire Ní Mhurchú, a 70-year-old woman originally from Cork who goes by the name D Murphy, was detained by Israeli forces in the village of Khallet al-Dabaa in the Masafer Yatta region of southern West Bank.
A court has since ordered her expulsion from the area.
Murphy was arrested shortly after Israeli forces declared the village a “closed military zone.” According to Palestinian sources, residents and international solidarity activists were forcibly removed from the area.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led organisation that supports nonviolent resistance in the West Bank and Gaza, said Murphy had been complying with Israeli orders to leave when she was harassed by Israeli settlers.
Israeli police were called to the scene and arrested both Murphy and Swedish activist Susanne Björk, accusing them of entering a restricted military area.
Both women appeared separately in court for deportation hearings on Sunday and have remained in custody since. Björk is due to be deported today, while Murphy has said she plans to challenge the court’s deportation order later this week. She remains in jail.
Speaking in a statement released after her arrest, Murphy said: “When most governments around the world are ignoring the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, ordinary people like me are answering the Palestinians’ call to bear witness to these events carried out by the Zionist Israeli entity. It’s not about politics – it’s about justice and freedom for all people.”
Her son, Dale Ryan, said his mother’s only offence was “observing crimes against Palestinian people.”
“D has always had a strong sense of justice, and I know she couldn’t sit at home while her friends in Masafer Yatta and across Palestine were suffering,” he said. “A piece of her heart is in Palestine. She needs to be there, doing what she can.”
Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance.
Mariam, a spokesperson for ISM, told The Journal that Israeli authorities appear to be targeting those who stand in solidarity with Palestinian communities.
She stated that D Murphy “was doing nothing” other than showing support and speaking to locals, who she said have been impacted by Israeli forces in recent weeks.
“Those who support Palestinians – like D – are being targeted along with the locals,” she said.
“It’s a way to isolate Palestinian communities.”
Her comments come just days after the Israeli government approved 22 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank – a move widely condemned by both international bodies and Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law, specifically violating Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Mariam said that in May, Israeli forces demolished around 90% of the homes and infrastructure in Khallet al-Dabaa, including water tanks, toilets, animal shelters, solar panels, and power and water supplies.
“Three weeks after this devastating erasure, settlers entered the village, forced families out of their caves, brought livestock, and set up an outpost at the edge of the community,” she said.
A number of Palestinians live in caves near the region surrounding Khallet al-Dabaa due to the destruction of their homes by the Israeli military, or lack of permits to build.
According to ISM, settlers have continued to return daily to harass residents, in what Mariam describes as an effort to forcibly remove those still living on their land.
“It’s a disaster,” she said.
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