Palestinian teenagers on a visit to Ireland said they were surprised at what they regard as the level of ignorance among the Irish about what is happening to their people.
Lina Kasbari (17) said there was "a misunderstanding" among Irish people about what is happening in the Palestinian territories, while Nourah Marawn (16) felt Irish views on what was going on there were "not clear."
She said one view was that "Palestinians were causing trouble to Israel, not the other way around". Ms Kasbari said some Irish people seemed to think that "Israel protects the Palestinians, whereas the real story was that it [Israel] caused the problems."
Both were among a group of 16 Palestinian teenagers from Zebabdeh in the northern West Bank who visited St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin as part of a Youth Connections for Peace project.
They are led by Fr Fadi Diab, an Anglican Palestinian priest from Zebabdah.
The Dean of St Patrick's, Very Rev Robert MacCarthy, said he was "very glad to welcome them" and remarked that it was "a marvellous thing" to see them in Ireland.
The project is led by Lucinda Packham of the School Completion Programme at Ballinteer Community School in Dublin.
She recently visited Zebabdeh and, alongside Fr Diab and local youth leaders, hopes to connect young people from Palestine with similar young people in Ireland.
The visit was made possible through funding from Léargas,with support from Irish aid agencies, the Irish churches, and the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation, where they have been staying during the visit. Susan Hood from the centre visited the West Bank twice last year.
Fr Diab said that Zebabdah was the only majority Christian village on the West Bank. It has a population of 5,000, 4,000 of whom were Christian.
In the Palestinian Territories, he estimated the Christian population at approximately 2 per cent, and at 3.5 per cent in Israel. In the area as a whole the number of Christians was dropping rapidly,which he felt was "a disaster" for the land where Jesus came from.
He emphasised the Youth Connections for Peace project would not just involve Christian young people but will be extended to include Muslims and Jews as it developed over a five-year period. It was intended that next year a similar group of Irish teenagers would visit the West Bank.
Life in the Palestinian territories was "very difficult", he said. It had been so since 1948, with brief years of relief between 1993 and 2000 following the Oslo Accord.
He appealed for more Irish people to visit the Holy Land and familiarise themselves with what is happening there.
