Anti-Zionists Overwhelm Christian Zionist Event in Bray
A pro-Palestine coalition shut down an event hosted by an Evangelical Zionist group at Ireland’s oldest Protestant church.
Chants of “baby killers out of Bray!” erupted on Bray’s Main Street yesterday, Saturday 30 May, as part of a protest against an event hosted by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ).
The ICEJ, one of the largest Christian Zionist organisations in the world, hosted a pro-Israel event at Cornerstone Church, the site of the oldest Protestant church in Ireland. At the forefront of the event was an Irish Christian duo, Paul and Pamela Coulter, as well as Sergey Kapishnikov, an Israeli professor at University College Dublin.
The protest itself was supported by various pro-Palestine groups, including North Wicklow Against Genocide, the Kildare and Wicklow branches of the Ireland–Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), Your Tech = Their Deaths, and Pals for Palestine. Also involved was the ex-Zionist American creative Joseph 'Joey' von Meding.
On Sunday 31 May, the day after the event, some of Ireland’s most prolific Zionists, including Alan Shatter and the Ireland Israel Alliance, took to the internet to condemn the anti-Zionist demonstrators, who were characterised as representatives of an “unhinged, radical fanaticism”.
This anti-Zionist action follows a previous victory in April, when a contingent of civil society organisations including Irish Sport for Palestine successfully forced the cancellation of an ICEJ event at the National Boxing Stadium in Rialto, Dublin.
