Sir, - We recently had the privilege of representing Ireland in Jerusalem as an interdenominational delegation of Christians from North and South of Ireland. Part of our purpose was to attend the ICEJ sponsored Christian Celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, along with some 6,000 Christians, Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal, from over 100 different countries. This year's celebration was very special, as it fell on the 3,000th anniversary of the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital city of King David.
We were present in Jerusalem when the violence took place surrounding the opening of the now infamous tunnel. We were shocked at the misrepresentation of these events on CNN and in the Western news media, which portrayed this as a desecration of the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem. It took nearly a week and fully 70 dead before the truth began to trickle out that the charge was not true.
This Hasmonean tunnel is 2,500 years old and was used to provide water to Jerusalem. It was actually re excavated in 1985, and has been open to visitors since then. It must be emphasised that no part of the tunnel runs underneath the Temple Mount at all, nor does it threaten any mosques. Yet the Muslim authorities stated that it cuts under their compound and call it "a crime against Islam".
We know, from first hand viewing, that the only religious site it does touch is Judaism's holiest shrine, the Western Wall. The excavation had been open for eight years. It needed another gate to allow more visitors through to the Via Dolorosa, which, in turn, will help the Arab shopkeepers there. Moreover, the opening of the tunnel exit did not violate the Oslo Agreement, as archaeological restorations in Jerusalem are not covered by it.
What happened? The Western media were taken in by a version put out by the PLO and the Arab League. At Arafat's urging, the League, within 48 hours of the tunnel's opening, issued a declaration calling the tunnel "part of an Israeli Zionist plot to destroy the Asqa mosque and set up the Temple of Solomon". We write for the sake of witnessing to the truth of these events, and to expose the increasingly anti Israel bias in much of the Western coverage of the Middle East. - Yours, etc., on behalf of Joe and Madeleine
Fleming, Veronica Flynn,
Morgan McStay, Paddy
Monaghan, Marie Sheridan
(from Dublin),
Brian Silvester and Florence
Moore (from Belfast),
Christians Concerned for
Ireland,
7 Northumberland Avenue,
Dun Laoghaire.