Despite objections from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Israeli authorities last night deported 25 Irish pilgrims from the port of Haifa, apparently because they regarded them as a security threat.
The group, which includes seven handicapped children, was being returned to Greece via Cyprus. They are members of the Pilgrim House Community, based in Castletown, Co Wexford.
Mr Daniel Pinhasi, First Secretary at the Israeli Embassy, said that the group had attempted to enter Israel without a visa. He conceded that it was "possible" that the Israeli authorities might have confused the group with the US-based Concerned Christians cult or with another millennium cult.
Mr Pinhasi said that an original visa application from the group had been turned down on the advice of the Israeli police. He explained that Israel was deeply concerned that religious extremists might try to usher in the "end of the world" by provoking acts of violence as the millennium approached.
The embassy confirmed that it had received a large number of complaints from members of the public about the treatment the group had received.
A spokesman for the Arch bishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, said that the Pilgrim House community was not part of any parish and was a "fringe Catholic group". The community's headquarters, although located in Co Wexford, was part of the Dublin diocese.
People living in the Castletown area described the group as "extremely private". But the local parish priest, Father Eugene McCarney, told The Irish Times that the community was a "committed and dedicated Christian group". It was not an extreme sect, as had been suggested.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, expressed his concern at the manner in which the Israeli authorities had treated the group when he met his Israeli counterpart, Mr David Levy, at an EU meeting in Luxembourg.
Mr Brendan Scannell, the Irish Ambassador to Israel, who spent most of yesterday with the group, was adamant that its members were not cultists and said that they presented no threat to Israel. He described them as a "Christian community group". They had arranged accommodation in Jerusalem through the Latin Patriarch and had made banking arrangements with Israel's Bank Leumi.
Mr Scannell said that he had asked Israel to reconsider the deportation, but his request had been rejected. He noted that the group could have entered Israel without a visa for a stay of up to 90 days. However, since the members had intended remaining there for eight or nine months, a formal visa application had to be made. When this was rejected the group had decided to travel anyway.
Speaking from the ferry leaving Haifa last night, Ms Helena O'Leary, who set up the group 10 years ago, said that they had wanted the handicapped children to see the Holy Land, but they had been punched and kicked by Israeli police in Haifa on Sunday night and bundled on to the ferry.