Member's statement: Gaza: The Madleen
Member's statement by Mr Pat Sheehan on .
- MLA
- Mr Pat Sheehan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 9 June 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Gaza: The Madleen
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4996965
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I commend the activists who sailed on the ship the Madleen to bring aid to Gaza. That aid consisted mostly of baby food and rice. Everyone here is aware of the blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip for a number of months. Everybody is also aware that the Israeli Government are using starvation as a weapon of war. We have seen horrific footage of starving and malnourished children, who are suffering as a result. The Madleen was commandeered in the early hours of this morning in an act of piracy by the Israeli Navy, which forcibly abducted the crew, among whom are Greta Thunberg, the well-known environmentalist, and Liam Cunningham, an actor from here in Ireland. I suppose that we can count our blessings that no one was hurt or injured — that we are aware of so far — because, when another ship sailed from Malta in May, it was hit by two Israeli drones. We are also cognisant of the fact that, in 2010, the Israelis attacked another ship, the Mavi Marmara, and killed 10 people on board. I also commend the people who took part in the Great March for Gaza between Lurgan and Omeath yesterday. Thousands participated in the march, which was 25 miles long. That is the length of the Gaza Strip. They were harassed along the way by a small number of pro-Israeli protesters. I have to say that the media did a very bad job of portraying the arrests of four people, because the four arrested were pro-Israeli protesters, whereas the media gave the impression that they were people from the pro-Palestinian group. Furthermore, I commend Queen's University for following the lead of Trinity College Dublin by ending all its ties with Israel. Despite what Arlene Foster has said, that is a progressive and welcome step. Let us hope that other universities and institutions take the lead from those two universities and cut all ties with a rogue state that is involved in the genocide of the Palestinian people and that is starving men, women and children by using starvation as —
— a weapon of war.
357 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.29 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.54).
- Subject area: Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.26 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.22 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.03 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.30 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.33 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.18 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.29 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.54 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.05 |
| Adopts it | 0.41 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Immigration, asylum, race, ethnicity and Travellers | 0.36 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.25 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.19 |
| Religion and belief (including people of no religion), churches, faith communities and religious prejudice (including antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice) | 0.09 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.09 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:42 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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