Let me tell you a little about Barry Williams, the Founder of this amazing group in Ireland. A beautiful country unfortunately noted for its antisemitism and anti-Israel stance.
I am posting a few things taken from an email from Barry a few months ago. Please excuse me if anything is repeated below. I’ll try hard not to replicate anything he has said.
My name is Barry Williams, I am 26 years old and I grew up in the Midlands of Ireland. In primary school we had a teacher who travelled to Israel, she brought back a Kippah and from then on my love of Israel has grown.
I have a huge love of Jewish people, culture etc.
I travelled to Israel in 2008 and that December Operation Cast Lead started. I saw a huge number of lies on the social networking site Bebo and Myspace, then I started to speak out.
I connected with other Zionists. We all gradually made the transition to Facebook and before long there were 60 of us.
I formed Irish4Israel with another guy called Daniel in 2010, Daniel has now moved to the UK and I solely run Irish4Israel.
Irish4Israel directly challenges media bias. We ask our now Facebook friends to comment on articles, blogs and forums in Ireland. We mass email politicians when they make anti-Israel statements.
We have directly challenged Amnesty and it has been noted in the last 18 months Amnesty Ireland has made less anti-Israel statements and spoke out more against Palestinian human rights abuses committed by the Palestinian Authority.
Ireland’s largest 3rd world NGO is called Trocaire. Trocaire called for a ban of Israeli settlements in October 2012. We began to challenge them as to why just Israeli settlement goods and not Chinese goods from Tibet? Trocaire went on the defensive.
I personally exposed that one of Trocaire’s senior staff members was an former director of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. I found out later that in fact 3 members of Trocaire’s Israel-Palestine department were former Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign members .
The IPSC is the largest and most hostile organisation against Israel in Ireland. It is VERY well financed, inviting numerous speakers, running various advertising campaigns and in reality has held a tight grip of Irish foreign policy.
This expose was not good for Trocaire who then produced a document for schools about Palestine. The document was very biased. Irish two Irish politicians openly condemned it.The document was pulled from Trocaire’s website and not sent out to schools. This again was partially thanks to Irish4Israel.
We have helped organise 2 pro Israel rallies in Dublin, We organised a counter BDS event in Cork city. While the IPSC were outside shouting, we went into each store and quietly bought lots of Israeli goods, asked to speak to the manager and told them we bought Israeli goods and don’t support BDS. This resulted in a hugely positive response from each store manager.
We also share various Youtube videos etc. from StandwithUs, share petitions and try and keep our members up to date and able to defend Israel online.
We really are the first entirely online pro-Israel social networking movement in the world.
Recently two articles in Irish papers claimed Tel Aviv was the capital we forced them to change the error and put in Jerusalem.
I organised a demonstration for Gilad Shalit outside the Foreign Ministers Office, this was part of a long running campaign to lobby the Irish government
Collected 3,000 signatures on a petition against an Irish ban of settler goods in 2012.
Monitored the media, numerous articles have been changed.
Mounted a campaign against Vincent Browne when he described Israel as a cancer, which forced the TV station to apologies.
Exposed links between the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Trocaire (A 3rd world NGO) . A former IPSC staff member works now for Trocaire’s Palestine/Israel department.
Uncovered how a member of Dublin Sinn Fein (Hardcore Irish republican party) works for Amnesty International and likes numerous anti Israel,American and British pages on Facebook.
We helped organise and promote the Love Israel rally in Dublin in 2012,
Have persuaded TD’s(Irish MP’s) like Charlie Flanagan to start to speak out against Boycotts on Twitter and against Trocaire.
Challenged anti- Israel activists on the radio.
We have held journalists accountable for what they write, so much so that the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign have started to complain about the pro-Israel movement (which means we are being effective)
Many online papers now have talkbacks and comment sections. We arrange for people to comment on those articles and to put up pro-Israel statements.
Assisted in bringing pro Israel speakers to Cork and to Dublin and promoting those events.
We want to portray Israel as more than just bombs and bullets. Ireland during our conflict was often seen as a country that was dangerous to travel to or that the Irish were terrorists.
Sadly many people in Ireland, do NOT know Israel is a modern dynamic State.
We want to show people this.
We want to challenge the stereotypes of Israel and hopefully create a positive impact long term.
This is the newsletter I have just received rounding of a year of amazing Israel Advocacy. Any financial help anyone can give, please be my guest. The link is at the bottom of the page
Dear All,
2013 has been a hugely busy year for Irish4Israel. As a group we started 2013 with less than 2,000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook.
On the 17th of January the Cork Poetry week hosted Lyor Shternberg, in keeping with our belief in supporting Israeli cultural events, we promoted the event and saw a large crowd turn out to hear Lyor’s lovely poetry.
January 20th saw Trocaire cancel their anti-Israel school literature and this was thanks to the very many of you who contacted Trocaire to raise your objection to their one sided propaganda for schools.
Throughout the year we have taken a strong focus on promoting Israeli tourism, from advertising direct summer flights from Dublin to Tel Aviv, to sharing general tourism material.
At the end of January we began to promote our online event to mass download Harel Skaat’s song Milim. This happened on the 3rd of March, we had great success. We got the song into the No.1 spot in the ‘World Music Genre’ charts on Itunes in Ireland and Harel Skaat even tweeted to thank us.
January 28th we began to speak out against the vile comments of school children in Kerry, these children were collecting money at Christmas and not only made anti-Israel comments to a visiting Israeli but also used age-old antisemitic stereotypes. This situation got huge press coverage in Ireland.
We continued throughout the year to urge our members to engage with the comment sections of the papers,especially the ‘Journal.ie’ and ‘Irish Independent’. This actually resulted in the ‘Journal’ blocking some pro-Israel commentators and refusing to explain why. Such a large number were blocked that it seems they simply didn’t want Pro-Israel comments.
February saw the visit of Israeli journalist Ben Dror Yemini. Mr Yemini was hosted by the Embassy and he spoke in various locations in Cork and Dublin.
February saw us reach 2,000 LIKES and our highest number of viewers in one week with over 110,000 views.
February 28th – the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland upheld a complaint against Vincent Browne, Mr Browne had described Israel as a ‘cancerous state’, TV3 had to issue an apology. Many of you had lodged complaints with TV3 about Mr Browne’s comments.
March we held a buy Israel week, We had many members purchase Israeli produce in stores. They sent us the pictures of their purchases.March also was the month in which we had the mass downloading of Harel Skaat’s song.
April saw us partner with BlueStar PR to produce pro Israel posters on 7 bus shelters in Cork. We raised the money through crowd funding on our Facebook page.The posters were of course damaged and we persistently cleaned them off. You can see the posters here.
April 23rd we donated a large quantity of pro Israel books to some Irish libraries. This was thanks to the generous donations from our supporters.
The 11th of May saw us come out against the settlement labeling supported by the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, we urged our members to contact the Minister and Irish Embassies if they lived abroad to raise their voices in protest.
At the start of May we reached 3,000 LIKES.
We had an Israeli food night in May in Cork,People enjoyed Falafel, Shakshuka, Israeli wine and of course some Arak.
May 27th saw the Israeli Embassy host the Virtual Tour of Israel, of course we were very happy to promote this event,which was a huge success with many guests attending.
From the 1st of June we supported the ‘StandWithUs UK’ and ‘Northern Irish Friends of Israel’ event to promote Israeli produce in Ireland and have a mega BUY ISRAEL WEEK. The response was HUGE with more photos coming in from our activists.
June 13th we organised a 24-hour mass action.We called on our activists to call, email and fax Minister Gilmore, the Irish Foreign Minister, to demand he doesn’t support settlement labeling at a EU Foreign Ministry meeting that week. Activists called and emailed his constituency and ministerial office, activists outside Ireland also contacted the Irish Embassy in their country to object to the Minister’s initiative.
Mid June we redesigned our logo, thanks to the help of a wonderful volunteer.
In June also, we consistently challenged Emer Costello MEP and Paul Murphy MEP on their silence over the Egyptian blockade of Gaza. Anti-Israel groups were also silent and we pointed this out on Facebook, they eventually decided to speak out about the Egyptian blockade.
In July, Paul Murphy MEP for Dublin called for an Intifada.Of course we raised our voice against this and many activists took the time to contact Paul,who received much criticism for his calls for an intifada.
July also saw the launch of the I24NewsIsraeli news channel , this year we promoted numerous Pro-Israel media organisations with the hope it could better help educate the public about the situation in the Middle-East.
In July our Twitter following hit 900 and currently we have 1,300 followers.
During the Summer we took a strong focus on the shrinking Christian population in the Middle-East and also promoted positive stories about Israeli Arab Christians who are proud to be Israeli.
August 22nd saw a fabulous take place in the Irish Jewish Museum by the Jewish Historical Society. It was about the comparison between the revival of Hebrew and that of the Irish language and the commonalities between Ireland and Israel in the various wars of Independence.
August 24th we reach 4,000 LIKES on Facebook.
Continuously we shared articles to better inform those on Facebook and Twitter. We used cartoons and various Youtube videos to help keep our activists up to date.We also took a strong focus on raising the profile of the Forgotten Refugees.
The first week of September we produced four Pro-Israel posters, thanks to the generous work of one volunteer who was very patient. You can see the four posters here, here, here and finally here.
September 18th ‘Etgar Keret’ came to Cork as part of the Cork International Short Story Festival, another cultural event we were happy to promote and support.
As part of our support for Israeli culture we promoted Krav Maga lessons across Ireland and also Hebrew lessons in Dublin and Cork.
In September we launched our Christmas card, this card was according to our knowledge, the FIRST Christmas card produced by a Pro-Israel organisation globally. We have been selling the cards to raise money for our online advertising budget.
October we expanded our social networking presence with a Youtube account,Pinterest and Instagram account.
In October it was announced that 2 billion euro of EU aid to the Palestinians has gone missing. We asked you to question Minister Costello ‘Does he believe our aid to the Palestinians is secure?’. We also asked you to email the Foreign Affairs Committee to ask about the plight of Gazan Christians and the missing EU money. Many TD’s on the committee commented how they had received a large volume of emails from people who supported Israel.
Another volunteer designed this great info graphic about the Forgotten Refugees.
.November started with ‘Boycott Israel’ activists defacing Israeli dates in Tesco in Dublin. Irish4Israel responded by asking for donations, with those donations we bought large quantities of these Israeli dates and gave them away to local activists and a community group. We urged our members to also buy the dates themselves. What started out as a small few purchases grew to us being able to purchase entire shelves of Israeli dates in numerous Tesco stores. Irish4Israel was subsequently interviewed on Arutz Sheva about our actions against the boycott of Israel.
Mid November, The BAI ruled that Peter Kearney of ‘Near FM’ breached their rules on impartiality and was biased in a broadcast about Israel. Mr.Kearney refused to apologise on air and actually joked about the BAI ruling, he currently has been suspended from ‘Near FM’.
Irish4Israel was also interviewed in November on Cork Community Radio.
We produced an advert about Christian Aid and Trocaire ignoring the plight of persecuted Christians in Syria and Egypt, preferring instead to demonise Israel.
December there was an Israeli Film and TV Week organised by the Israeli Embassy, an event we were delighted to promote. Of course there were Anti-Israel protests, but they were minor and the event past off very successfully.
Also as I write this we are 50 LIKES short of 6,000. It has been fantastic to see Irish4Isreal grow so much in the last year but this growth would not have been as extensive without your support.
I would like to thank all of you who wrote letters to editors, took the time to contact your politicians and donated money to us. Thank you also to those who shared our content with your friends and designed our info graphics and adverts.
Without your help and support we would not have achieved so much in 2013 so THANK YOU very much
Shalom agus Slán
Barry Williams
Irish4Israel
https://twitter.com/irish4israel
https://www.facebook.com/irish4israel
Please consider donating to help our work defend Israel in Ireland. Click here
Betty
19/12/2013
This is inspirational. Just goes to show how a small dedicated and committed group can advocate on behalf of Israel with so much success. Not only this but they self fund and achieve so much against hugely more organised and well funded malign forces of evil. I hope this becomes an example for more people to be involved not only in Ireland but everywhere.
Shirlee Finn
19/12/2013
I have been in contact with Barry for quite while he is doing amazing work and really inspires us all.
Pam
19/12/2013
What an amazing young man, to run this group single handedly and to have accomplished so much. Let’s hope it serves as an inspiration for those of us who feel that nothing can be done to counter the entenched bias against Israel.
Geoff Dickson
20/12/2013
Barry is a real inspiration and proof that you can succeed without piles of money. What Ireland needs is a group opposing the Islamisation of Ireland and the proliferation of mosques where the hate preaching starts. Barry has indicated to me that his focus is on Israel and I understand that given his current resources. Barry has put me in touch with another person whom I hope to meet in May next year when I visit Ireland. I am also meeting with Gavin Boby of the British Law and Freedom Foundation who is having great success in Britain opposing mosque applications. The current concern for Ireland is the huge six acre Clongriffin mosque development in North Dublin which will be one of the largest in all of Europe. The intention is to built a Sharia only community which will see native Irish people driven out. Gavin Boby has documented this well and shows the stages in which this happens. Starting with street crowding which is annoying, intimidation starts and eventually locals move out and sell their properties at about 50% of true value. This is when people wake up. For most people their greatest asset is their home and once Sharia zones take hold property values drop.
A holistic approach is needed.
As each mosque grows in support, there are more acts of intimidation towards locals and eventually you get Sharia only suburbs and a divided community. What is happening now in France and England is starting to happen in Ireland. The more mosques, the greater the hatred towards Israel. Islamic scripture calls Jews the vilest of creatures and states that if a Muslim kills a Jew they will go straight to Paradise and receive a special reward.
Every mosque preaches that Jews must be killed before the last hour. [Musim book 41 no.6985] A study in the USA in 2011 found that 81% of mosques teach violent Jihad and the people funding mosques in Ireland are the same as in the USA.