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Dublin’s National Concert Hall scraps fundraiser for Israel’s MDA, sparking outcry

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14.04.2026

JTA — The National Concert Hall in Dublin has drawn condemnation from the head of Israel’s emergency medical service, Magen David Adom, after it canceled a planned fundraiser for the organization.

The event, which was slated for May 11, was set to include a play featuring testimonies from survivors and first responders of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. It was organized as a fundraiser for Israel’s national emergency medical service by Magen David Adom Ireland, an Irish charity that raises funds for the organization.

Arrangements for the event were made in early February and have since been canceled and reinstated once before, according to Magen David Adom Ireland.

After initially cancelling the event last month, the National Concert Hall told Irish outlet Hot Press that it had been dropped because the venue “does not host political events,” but that it was later reinstated following what it described as a misunderstanding.

The National Concert Hall said in response to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency inquiry that “the proposed event with MDA Ireland on 11 May will not proceed.” The organizers did not respond to a request for comment on the reasoning behind the cancellation.

Irish pro-Palestinian groups had urged their followers to protest the reinstatement, alleging that Magen David Adom was “complicit in genocide.”

Magen David Adom, recognized as the International Red Cross’ affiliate in Israel, is staffed by and serves Israeli Arabs as well as Jews. In 2023, Ireland’s National Ambulance Service sent a delegation to Israel to study the organization’s operations of Magen David Adom.

Last November, the nonprofit hosted another fundraiser at the Chabad house in Dublin, which focused on “positive relations between Arabs and Jews in Israel, including examples of cooperation and solidarity following the October 7 attacks,” according to Nadav Matzner, a........

© The Times of Israel