Rachel Moiselle

Unfortunate that I have to spend time in Israel combatting this ridiculousness, but here we are. The notion that these Irish citizens were not permitted into Ireland because they are Irish is simply not the truth. Once again in the Irish Times - similar to when a sports journalist of theirs propagated a false notion that Israeli security was present at the Ireland/Israel UEFA fixture in order to spy on Irish media - there seems to be, at a very generous reading, a fundamental lack of understanding of the security threats that the Israeli people are constantly under such that these measures are necessary. A less generous reading is that there is a portion of Irish society suffering from a chronic mix of main character syndrome and victimhood complex and with respect to a region in the Middle East wherein we are entirely irrelevant. Do I have to spell this out? I am Irish and I arrived in Israel on Sunday. Here I am right now chilling in a kibbutz with the passport I used to enter the country. The Italian woman directly in front of me did not get through (she was questioning for approximately 20 mins), but I did after under 10 mins. I arrived on my own and the security man had no idea who I was. As much as I appreciate Irish people thinking I’m important enough to be known and that this is the reason I was let through with relative ease, that is simply not the case. The questions I was asked included: - Is it your first time in Israel? - Are you here for work or pleasure? - How long are you here for? - Where are you staying? Amongst a few others. I answered those questions satisfactorily so I was permitted through. The reason other Irish citizens were not permitted into the country would have been because they did *not* answer these questions similarly satisfactorily. Everyone knows Israeli security is extremely tough, and everyone should know the devastation that is wrought when it fails. The FlyDubai hijacking occurred mere weeks ago! If you don’t want to be subjected to tough Israeli security then there is a simple solution: don’t visit Israel. There is no way you will get around it no matter what nationality you are. Indeed, it is quite interesting that people who so loathe Israel want to visit it at all. Israel has a right to conduct robust airport security checks in order to protect its people. If they did not have such strict security measures, then in 1986, El Al Flight 016 would have blown up murdering 376 passengers. One victim would have been the unwitting Irish bomb carrier, Anne-Marie Murphy, who was five months pregnant. Anne-Marie’s Jordanian boyfriend, Zezar Himdawi, put her on the plane with a bomb; the most extreme and evil example of the anti-Israel movement using Irish people for its own ends, although certainly not the only one. The bomb in Anne’s suitcase was similarly identified through intense questioning by Israeli security after getting through the initial checks by British authorities. The people complaining about Israeli security need to be asked: would you have wanted those 376 people murdered? Would you have wanted that poor, naïve Irishwoman to be murdered? Indeed, have you even heard of the Himdawi affair at all? If no, then ask yourself why. The problem here is not that a random Irishman has a persecution complex and thinks he was denied entry because he is Irish. The problem is that this ridiculous notion is legitimised in our completely biased paper of record. If the Irish Times wishes to do a piece on the warm welcome many Irish people received in Israel, there are many of us who can speak to that. But we won’t be holding our breaths.