Three ambulances sponsored by Irish Jewish communities in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, as well as by the Christian Friends of Israel in Ireland group, were handed over to the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, Magen David Adom (MDA), at an official ceremony in Haifa yesterday.
The ceremony was attended by Ireland's ambassador to Israel, Michael Forbes, UK ambassador Tom Phillips, Ireland's Chief Rabbi, Rev Yaakov Pearlman, Haifa's deputy mayor, Zvika Dahari, the secretary of Christian Friends of Israel in Ireland, Paddy Monaghan, the president of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, Estelle Menton, and the president of the Jewish community in Belfast, Ronnie Appleton.
Each ambulance carries an inscription on its door along with a harp symbol. The inscription reads: "Presented to the People of Israel by the Irish Jewish Communities of Dublin, Belfast & Cork and Irish Christian Friends of Israel."
Last August, during Israel's war with Hizbullah in Lebanon, Christian groups in Ireland joined with the Jewish communities in Belfast, Cork and Dublin to raise funds to purchase the three ambulances. As much as €150,000 was raised through donations and collections.
The ambulances will serve the Jewish, Arab and Christian communities of northern Israel in the towns of Safed, Kiryat Shemona and Zichron Yaakov.
Renee Jacqueline Brown, of the MDA agency in Haifa, told The Irish Times yesterday: "We never thought Ireland would worry about northern Israel. We are really, truly, agreeably surprised. We do not have many contacts with Ireland. What Jews and Christians there have done for us went straight to our hearts."
Paddy Monaghan, of Christian Friends of Israel in Ireland, said that they had taken the initiative to assist the Jewish, Arab and Christian people of northern Israel as they felt they were being ignored by the international relief agencies, which were concentrating on helping people in Lebanon.
He recalled that 20 people, including two Arabs, had been killed in Haifa in more than 400 rocket attacks on that city during the conflict last year.
Mr Monaghan read a letter from Northern Ireland's First Minister, the Rev Ian Paisley, at yesterday's ceremony. The letter thanked Mr Monaghan for planting a tree in Dr Paisley's name at the Irish Peace and Reconciliation Forest at Beth Schemesh in southern Israel. The forest is sponsored by the four main churches in Ireland.
In a short address, Ambassador Forbes suggested that Israel could learn from the peace process in Northern Ireland, a view with which the UK ambassador concurred.