Catherine Connolly (Photo: Oireachtas)[Missing Credit]
She added that what had happened on October 7 was "absolutely wrong", but that "history did not start on 7 October".
Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin accused the independent of being reluctant to “unequivocally condemn” Hamas’s October 7 attack with her comments on the radio.
"Catherine Connolly has said it was wrong, but then moved quickly to qualify it by saying oh, everything didn't start on 7 October.
"As if that somehow justified what Hamas did."
The taoiseach said "There should be unequivocal condemnation of Hamas, if we're trying to chart future for a Palestinian state, with guarantees for Israel into the future. Hamas is not that option.”
Connolly later said on RTÉ's Morning Ireland that she has "utterly condemned" Hamas "over and over".
Connolly went on to describe Hamas terrorists as “part of the civil society of Palestine”.
"[Hamas] were elected by the people the last time there was an election. Overwhelming support for them back in 2006 or 2007. They are part of the civil society of Palestine. We're reliant on them for figures in relation to the deaths."
She said both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes and that Israel has behaved like a "terrorist state", and the October 7 attacks were "absolutely unacceptable".
Meanwhile, in October 2021, years before the recent Gaza war, Connolly – then serving as deputy chairperson of the lower house of Ireland’s parliament – wrote in a parliamentary question that Israel was trying to “accomplish Jewish supremacy.”
Connolly asked the Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney if “indicating support for the Jewish character of the Israeli state” meant that his ministry “agrees with the treatment by Israel of Palestinian communities in its attempts to accomplish Jewish supremacy.”
She asked Coveney “his views on whether these attempts to perpetuate the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians amount to apartheid, and if he will make a statement on the matter.”
Jewish Representative Council of Ireland chair Maurice Cohen said at the time that Connolly “strayed into classic antisemitic language by perpetuating the trope of ‘Jewish supremacy.’”
The independent, who was previously a Labour politician, has also accused Nato of warmongering.
If elected, Connolly, 68, would succeed Michael D Higgins as Ireland’s 10th president.
Higgins previously attracted controversy when he expressed condolences for the death of Iran’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, known as the "Butcher of Tehran".
This article previously reported that Catherine Connolly said on BBC Radio Ulster that she was “reluctant to unequivocally condemn” October 7. This was inaccurate. Connolly has condemned the Hamas-led terror attack.
