Connect: 'Ah, you've come to see how they manage the animals," said one man. He was addressing part of an Irish group visiting Palestine's West Bank earlier this month. Most of the group of 26 people was queuing with hundreds of Palestinians at the main checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
Israel's 650km "barrier", built in parts as a 25ft high concrete wall - whether considered a "security" measure or proof of "apartheid" - is extremely contentious. Much of the wall is built on Palestinian land.
The main checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem - which are about 10km apart - is located within the wall. Many of the queuing Palestinians wanted to pray at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque. The mosque is Islam's third holiest site (after Mecca and Medina) and Muslims consider it an honour to attend Friday prayers there, especially during Ramadan. They queue, often for hours, to be allowed through the wall, knowing that the go-ahead depends on the whim of a soldier.
Even those permitted to pass through the wall can - at the vagary of another soldier or policeman - be turned back to the start of the queue.
Anyway, a member of the Irish group, Declan McKenna, was videoing the repeated indignities inflicted upon Palestinians waiting at the wall. Suddenly, and without provocation, the Israeli soldiers began firing grenade-sized explosive devices made of rubber, plastic and metal at the queuing crowd. Naturally, the Palestinians and the Irish among them fled. McKenna, though backtracking, continued to video. As he did so, one of the devices exploded beside him. He still has the bruise around his lower left ribs.
The device also left a burn mark on his shirt. When he returned to Dublin, he offered his video to RTÉ television. They deemed it not to be news. "While your footage was very dramatic, it's not news in that we know it goes on," went the e-mail.
Maybe journalists in RTÉ know "it goes on", but it seems a flimsy excuse not to broadcast at least some of the video on a current affairs programme.
McKenna offered the video to the Department of Foreign Affairs. He spoke to a third secretary and asked: "Why did the Israelis endanger Irish citizens?" The department refused even to view his "very dramatic" video. Perplexed, he contacted the department again, said he was "John Williams" and that he had shot his video in Cuba, a country he has championed.
"I said it showed security forces in Cuba manhandling Cuban citizens, adding that I was manhandled myself," he said. This time, he claims, the department was very interested. Whether McKenna's deception in pretending to be "John Williams" can be justified depends on whether you consider the nature of the act (a lie) or its result (uneven treatment proven) to be paramount. Still, it speaks volumes.
It bespeaks partisan treatment on the part of the department. It also raises the suspicion that, like the arrangement that allows US military use of Shannon airport, this country has an increasingly servile attitude towards power. Fair enough, there are longstanding - some honourable - ties with the US, but is it necessary that Ireland behave like a Uriah Heep of nations? Certainly, the story suggests that our Department of Foreign Affairs will do practically anything not to upset the discredited current US administration. Sure, there is realpolitik in such an attitude. But an abject cravenness is discernible too.
The argument can be made that any endangering of American investment here could be political suicide. However, if that is the rationale for this cravenness, then at least part of this country's current economic prosperity is founded on ignoring injustices to even less powerful people.
Anyway, the ordeal for most of the Irish group continued at Tel Aviv airport. Half of the 26-strong group was flying home on the same aircraft. All of these people (and others taking a different flight) were issued with red stickers, affixed to their cases, hand luggage and passports. With their stickers visible, Israeli security then demanded that each person - men and women - drop their trousers to facilitate an electronic search. In addition, women, if they wished to board the flight, were told to remove their brassieres. The searching was done privately and each gender was checked by members of their own sex. Nonetheless, the ordeal was thoroughly humiliating.
What does Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern think of all this? The 26-strong group was predominantly Christian but it included atheists too. Only two, perhaps three people were members of Ireland's Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The man who referred to the queuing hundreds as "animals" was a Palestinian. He was being facetious, but it seems he was telling the truth too.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told The Irish Times: "We are aware of difficulties at the Qualandia checkpoint (between Jerusalem and Ramallah) on Friday, October 13. We did not however know of any Irish involvement at checkpoints. We will be pleased to meet any representatives of the group next week and raise their issues with the Israelis."