Irish MEPs have condemned Israel's continuing refusal to admit a group of pilgrims from Co Wexford without the imposition of restrictive conditions. These include a ban on entering Israel until after the Pope's visit there next month.
Almost six months after they were forcibly ejected from Israel after a translation error led to them being regarded as an extremist religious cult, the 25 members of the Pilgrim House community, including handicapped people and children, are still striving to go to the Holy Land.
They are now in Lyons in France, from where they have lobbied politicians and Government officials to force a change of mind by the Israeli authorities.
The 13 MEPs from the Republic said yesterday they were "angered and disappointed" at the latest Israeli offer to end the standoff. This included a number of "completely unacceptable" conditions, including the ban on entering during the Papal visit and an insistence on continuous police monitoring while they were in Israel.
Ms Helena O'Leary of the Pilgrim House group said that although most of the money they intended to live on in Israel had already been spent, the group was still determined to travel to the Holy Land. No decision had yet been made on the latest Israeli proposals.
