Thomas Hand, the Irish man whose young Irish-Israeli daughter Emily Hand was kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attacks and later released, says he would be hesitant to return to Ireland.
“I’m pretty well recognized nowadays," Thomas told Jewish News this week.
"I could be very easily attacked,” he said as he recalled coming face to face with anti-Israel demonstrators while in Ireland.
Thomas added: “They [the Irish] simply don’t understand the history of the place.
"Myself, before I came here [to Israel], I had Palestinian sympathies – I was a sympathizer.”
However, living in Be'eri in Israel, just a few kilometers from Gaza, changed his outlook.
“They fired thousands and thousands and thousands of rockets at us continuously,” he said.
He continued: “Ireland mistakenly sees Israel as the superpower, the strength, the oppressor, and of course they have sympathies for the Palestinian people.
“Well, if they understood the history of the place, they’d realize there is no comparison.”
Thomas, a native of Dublin who lived in England before moving to Israel in 1992, was initially told that his daughter Emily was killed during the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.
He made headlines when he told CNN he felt it was a "blessing" that his daughter had been killed as opposed to being kidnapped by Hamas.
However, later in October 2023, Thomas was informed there was a "high chance" that Emily was, in fact, still alive and likely taken hostage.
Along with the families of other hostages, Thomas traveled to both Ireland - where he met with Irish political leaders - and the US to drum up support for not only the release of his daughter but also the other hostages.
On November 21, 2023, Qatar announced that successful joint meditation efforts involving Israel, Hamas, Egypt, and the US resulted in an agreement for a humanitarian pause as well as the release of hostages.
Emily was part of the second group of hostages released on November 25, just days after her ninth birthday.
During his interview with Jewish News this week, Thomas did acknowledge that Ireland was "really instrumental in getting Emily back – they did a hell of a lot."
He said: “Within a few days of finding out that Emily wasn’t dead but kidnapped, the first trip we took was to Ireland.
“We met with the Prime Minister, president and lots of MPs – it was purely a political visit to make them put pressure on Hamas and they definitely did.”
Grateful to meet Thomas Hand and his daughter Natali, and other relatives of civilians being held hostage in Gaza today. Our thoughts are with you. pic.twitter.com/Dwoez6sdwA
— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) November 14, 2023
Thomas was speaking with Jewish News not long after Israel announced that it would be shuttering its Embassy in Dublin.
In its announcement, Israel accused Ireland of being "anti-semitic," accusations which Ireland vehemently denies.
“I expected them [Israel] to do it a lot earlier,” Thomas told the Jewish News because Israel regards Ireland as doing “too many anti-Israel things.”
Thomas, however, admitted that he is not happy that the Embassy in Dublin has closed as cutting the lines for diplomacy is “never a good thing."
He added: “But I guess they had to show some kind of sign that we’re not very happy with the decisions being made by the Irish government."
Earlier this year, Thomas said he was "ashamed" to be Irish after Ireland, in concert with Spain and Norway, moved to formally recognize Palestine.
“Recognizing Palestine as a state, very soon after their massive terrorist attack – it was almost a reward,” he told Jewish News this week.
“They [the Irish government] must have seen all the atrocious videos that Hamas put online themselves and yet they were recognised.
"For me personally, it looked like they were being rewarded for what they did.”
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