Christian group rallies in support of Israel

A GROUP of Irish Christians held a prayer rally in support of Israel and its “right to exist” at the Israeli embassy in Dublin yesterday afternoon.

The Irish Christian Friends of Israel group said it was “convinced that the real rogue state in this conflict is not Israel but Iran which has threatened again and again to wipe Israel off the map”.

About 60 people braved monsoon-like conditions to pray and sing hymns offering support for Israel and many carried the country’s flag along with the tricolour.

Organiser Patrick Monaghan said the misleading impression had been given by the Irish media that Israel had no friends in Ireland, but the turnout was indicative of the support that many Christians felt for Israel.

Mr Monaghan denounced the Gaza flotilla and said many of those on board were Islamic activists bent on martyrdom.

He also condemned Hamas and Iran over their influence in the region.

“We’re not activists, we don’t have the money that the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign has, but there are many here in all the churches that support us,” he said.

Mr Monaghan stressed that the support was not conditional. “Israel gets things wrong, but we stand behind their right to exist and defend their citizens.”

He praised the Israeli ambassador, Dr Zion Evrony, for his “unfailing graciousness” in response to Israel’s many critics.

Brian Gray, who attended with his wife, Jacqui, said, as Christians, God had told them to support Israel.

“I believe what I am doing is right. The Israelis do make mistakes, but they get it right most of the time,” he said.

He dismissed the outcry over the shooting dead of nine activists on the Mavi Marmara by Israeli special forces as “terrorist PR”.

“The Israelis said it should have been handled better, but I think it was a set-up.”

Jacqui Gray said: “We are here to let Israel know that they are not on their own in this. We want them to know there is a sector of the Irish people who do support them. The Lord God made a covenant with Israel and it does not matter if it is 2,000 or 10,000 years. It cannot be broken.”

The event passed off peacefully and there was no pro-Palestinian counter-demonstration.

The Irish Christian Friends of Israel will be holding an event in honour of Dr Evrony at the Terenure Synagogue Hall on Thursday, July 8th before he leaves his post in August.

The DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, a strong supporter of Israel, will speak, along with Fine Gael TD Seymour Crawford.

In May 2007 three ambulances sponsored by the group, as well as Irish Jewish communities in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, were handed over to the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, Magen David Adom, in Haifa.

A decision to raise €150,000 for the ambulances was made during Israel’s 2006 war with Hizbullah in Lebanon.

The group said at the handover in Haifa they had done this in order to assist Jewish, Arab and Christian people in northern Israel who, they felt, were being ignored by international relief agencies.