In November 2025, Dr Shoshan Haran arrived in Northern Ireland as the guest of Northern Ireland Friends of Israel.

On 7th October 2023, Dr Haran’s home in Kibbutz Be’eri was attacked by Hamas terrorists as the kibbutz was overrun. Her husband, Avshalom, was amongst the 1,200 people murdered that day. Shoshan, her daughter and grandchildren were amongst 250 hostages abducted into Gaza.

Shoshan is an avid reader about the Holocaust. She believes what she learnt from the experience of Holocaust survivors helped her survive the ordeal of the kidnapping and look after her family during the fifty days they were held captive in Gaza.

At the Northern Ireland Assembly, Shoshan was welcomed by the Speaker. She went on to meet elected representatives from various parties over lunch.

In the evening, Dr Haran addressed the largest ever gathering in the history of NIFI. Over 500 people filled the room. A further 200 who applied to attend the event had to be turned down because of room capacity.

Shoshan was greeted by a standing ovation as she took the stage. The audience was back on its feet when she finished speaking. Many present had prayed and campaigned for the hostages over the last two years and this was an emotional moment.

The next day we were honoured to take Shoshan around some of the sights in the city. In the afternoon she was the guest of the Lord Mayor, Tracy Kelly, at City Hall.

Shoshan is writing a book which will not only tell her personal story. It will also warn the international community against normalising mass kidnapping as if it is a legitimate act of war. Her face to face dealing with Hamas left her in no doubt their vision is to Islamicise the world. Destroying Israel is the immediate goal. The counter to this she believes is to cut off the funding for terrorist organisations. Also to reform educational systems to undermine extremist ideology.

Northern Ireland Friends of Israel was delighted to work with Magen David Adom UK and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum in organising Shoshan’s visit to Northern Ireland.

In October 2018, Northern Ireland Friends of Israel hosted Isaac Herzog in Belfast to celebrate the centenary of his father’s birth in the city – Chaim Herzog, sixth President of Israel, was born on Cliftonpark Avenue in 1918

Isaac has himself since become President of Israel. He is named after his grandfather who was rabbi in Belfast, 1916 -19, and later became chief rabbi of the Irish Free State and then Israel.

We were proud to host in Belfast members of the Herzog family and representatives and leaders of Jewish communal and Israeli organisations.

At a wonderful lunch at Belfast synagogue, the Herzog family was presented with a portrait of the late President by painter Rachel Quirey which will be displayed by the community.

The Lord Lieutenant of Belfast spoke movingly of the Belfast Jewish community’s contribution to the city.

The family visited the former Herzog family home in Cliftonpark Avenue.

Isaac and his brother Michael (who since became Israel’s ambassador to the USA) met with the speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and held a roundtable discussion with representatives from different parties at Stormont.

The ambassador of Israel, His Excellency Mark Regev, was amongst the speakers at an evening gala event at a packed Great Hall in Stormont. The host was Peter Weir MLA. The attendance included members of the Westminster Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly, Belfast city council and senior representatives of the major church denominations.

There were performances of Israeli and Irish music and various videos illustrated the illustrious life of President Chaim Herzog.

A presentation was made to Isaac Herzog on behalf of the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem.

Isaac Herzog speaking at Stormont gala event

After Belfast, the party travelled to Dublin and London for further events and receptions to celebrate the Herzog centenary.

Northern Ireland Friends of Israel would like to thank the following organisations for their support: Belfast Jewish community, Northern Ireland Assembly, Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jewish Leadership Council, World Zionist Organisation, Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, Jewish Agency, Christian friends.

Jerusalem is a Biblical city, prayed for and cherished by billions,  with modern challenges and needs.

In 2018, Jerusalem city councillor, Fleur Hassan Nahoum, visited Belfast as a guest of Northern Ireland Friends of Israel.

Fleur spoke to a large audience of NIFI supporters, paid a courtesy visit to the Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast, and met with elected representatives at Stormont, including DUP Party leader, Arlene Foster MLA, William Humphrey MLA; Ulster Unionist Steve Aiken MLA; and Alliance MLA John Blair in his first week in post.

Positive conversations included challenges of shared public space, integration, tourism and Jerusalem’s experience in hi tech with the Made in Jerusalem initiative.

The Great Hall, Stormont, was packed to capacity to mark a hundred years since the Balfour Declaration – one of the significant centenary anniversaries associated with the Great War, and an important milestone towards the establishment of the state of Israel.

Named after the then Foreign secretary, Lord Balfour, the declaration gave the support of the British government to the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in its ancestral homeland.

It was welcomed as an act of justice and restoration to an exiled and persecuted people.

Over 200 attended the commemoration including members of the House of Lords, Commons and Northern Ireland Assembly.

 

Speakers included the deputy ambassador of Israel, Sharon Bar Li.

Israeli songs were performed by London-based singer songwriter, Tally Koren.

 

The event was organised jointly between the Northern Ireland Friends of Israel and the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem.

Speakers included historian Roy Thurley, David Parsons, vice president of ICEJ and Rabbi David Singer of the Belfast Jewish community.

(Photos George Pennock   www.georgepennock.com  )

 

 

 

 

 

Generous supporters of Israel in Northern Ireland have donated two medical motorbikes to the MDA, the equivalent of the Red Cross. They are already saving lives in Israel.

A huge thank you to all who supported the fundraising campaign

Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day  in Israel. A young Israeli woman, Emily Cohen, who has an Ulster Mum, Laura, walks along the perimeter fence at Auschwitz.

and learns the stories of those murdered there.

People Before Profit want the right to flout anti-discrimination laws when it suits them.

(Photo = burning Israeli flag outside Belfast city hall,  at Trade Union protest, 2009)

They want Belfast City council to discriminate against Israeli Jews because of their nationality – even though legislation rightly prevents local authorities from discriminating against people because of their faith, nationality, gender or sexual orientation.

They would rightly decry a council resolution discriminating against anyone else on this planet on the grounds of their nationality or religion – except Israeli Jews.

Insert the words Chinese, Turks or Pakistanis in their resolution and not a single Councillor would support it.

But a right to discriminate against Israeli Jews is the cause of a protest by “anti racists” at Belfast city hall.

William Humphrey, MLA for North Belfast raises issues of anti-Jewish racism in Northern Ireland.

Speech from the NI Assembly Race Debate, highlighting anti-Semitism –Tuesday 11th Oct 2016.

Mr Humphrey:

The Belfast Jewish community continues to make an important and valued contribution to the life blood of Belfast.

At sunset tonight, Jews across the globe will celebrate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Across Europe, synagogues will have armed guards because of the risk of attack on those places of worship. In the past few years, deadly attacks on kosher shops in Paris, a synagogue in Copenhagen and a Jewish museum in Brussels have occurred.

In the United Kingdom, Jewish schools have guards and bombproof windows. The Community Security Trust, members of which I met some months ago, has produced the following statistics: in 2014, there were 1,179 anti-Semitic attacks in the United Kingdom; last year, there were 924 similar attacks. There have been anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish Members of Parliament Ruth Smeeth and Luciana Berger.

Anti-Semitic racism is the oldest type of racism that exists. Sadly, it is not just on the European continent, and is not just on the mainland of our United Kingdom.

The synagogue is in my constituency, and Members will be aware of Rabbi David Singer speaking very recently of the evil anti-Semitic phone calls and emails that he, as the pastoral leader of the old and established Belfast Jewish community, has been receiving. The graffiti recently daubed on the synagogue and in Belfast city centre was absolutely sickening and harked back to the 1930s and Nazi Germany.

Sadly, these attacks followed the removal of the Chaim Herzog plaque from a building on Cliftonpark Avenue. The plaque was removed for its protection. There was an attack on a mural in Northumberland Street that praised an Ulsterman who worked with the Israeli defence forces. Also, in August of this year, in an awful and evil attack on the Jewish sector of Belfast City Cemetery, 13 headstones were damaged by a mob carrying bricks, rocks and hammers.

Having spoken to the rabbi on two occasions, having met, along with the Belfast Lord Mayor, the Belfast Jewish Council in the City Hall, and visited the synagogue recently, I have to say that the Jewish community in this city is very fearful of attack.

The debate that took place in the Guildhall, Londonderry last week was mentioned. Without question, parties who voted for that motion have to take responsibility for raising anti-Jewish tensions in Northern Ireland. I have spoken to members of the Jewish community who have told me that that is exactly the case. They are friends of mine, and I know it to be true. In making good the damage at Belfast City Cemetery, I have met the director of parks for Belfast City Council and the local police in north Belfast. I have invited the Chief Constable to visit the synagogue. I have invited the First Minister of Northern Ireland to join me

— Mr Stalford: Will the Member give way?

Mr Humphrey: I will surely.

Mr Stalford: Does the Member agree that the disgusting attack in the City Cemetery was merely the culmination of a campaign directed against the Jewish community in Belfast that goes back a long way? We have not only kids from Israel working on the Dead Sea products stall in Castle Court being attacked but products being torn off supermarket shelves because they come from Israel. 

Mr Humphrey: The Member is quite right: people take part in so-called pro-Palestinian rallies, but they turn out to be anti-Israel rallies. I am not here to speak about the whats, wherefores and “whataboutery” of Israel; I am talking about the indigenous Jewish community in this city.

As I mentioned, tonight is Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement. The evil people who took part in the attack in the City Cemetery, daubed graffiti on the synagogue and sent threatening emails to members of the Jewish community, including the rabbi, need to atone for their evil actions across not just Europe but this United Kingdom. We must stamp out anti-Semitism.

I and my party will continue to stand firm in support of Belfast’s small but growing Jewish community. They have provided so much to this city’s cultural, political and, most importantly, commercial life, and they continue to do so. The Jewish community is valued in this city. I am greatly privileged to represent the Jewish community in North Belfast, where the synagogue is placed, and I regularly visit there. The attack is a sad reflection on the city. This city, nationally and internationally, was damaged reputationally by that vile and evil attack in the City Cemetery.

Such actions have to be condemned across the House. I am glad that they were.

(extracted from Hansard)