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Yoseph Haddad, a former soldier who led IDF chants at the Ireland vs Israel match was previously invited to Leinster House. He posted a video of himself online at the controversial game on Sunday, which was held in Devrecen, Hungary. Ireland won the match against Israel 3-0 following intense pressure to cancel the fixture. Standing in the bleachers, Haddad said: "So, maybe the football Irish team beat us on the football field but they will never ever break the Israeli spirit. “So, yes, we lose on football. Yes. But you know where we don't lose? The IDF. We always win.” The former IDF soldier then began chanting “IDF” and a crowd of supporters at the match joined in. In February 2022, Haddad was invited to Leinster House by the Oireachtas Friends of Israel group. It was inactive from 2016 until 2022 when it was re-established by several senators and TDs, including Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. The Health Minister later left the group after being appointed as a junior minister. Haddad spoke in the AV room of Leinster House, where he accused Amnesty International of “lies” for its 2022 report accusing Israel of apartheid. He told TDs and senators: “Are you afraid that I will expose your lies and hypocrisy about the State of Israel as an Israeli Arab? “Are you afraid that I will expose the true motivations behind your obsession with my country, that maybe, just maybe it’s not about ‘human rights’ but about a disproportionate focus on the one state in the world which defines itself as Jewish?” The former IDF soldier later posted a photo posing outside Leinster House with Minister Carroll MacNeill. After this speech, Haddad was invited back to speak in the Oireachtas. On April 5, 2022, he joined the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee remotely. Weeks after Haddad first spoke in Leinster House, a Dáil debate took place on the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Patricia Ryan, a Sinn Féin TD at the time, said she was “shocked” that Haddad was invited, saying: “Mr Haddad had stated he travelled to Ireland to fight against the lies of the recent Amnesty International report. “Mr Haddad has praised Israel's attack on Palestinian civil society, including the classing of six NGOs as terrorist groupings and the shoot-to-kill tactics used by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank. My instinct was not to attend his appearance but I could not let his propaganda go unchallenged.” #NewsForYou

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#ireland #cork