The Zionist Organization of America supports and praises the Israeli government and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar for taking the extremely rare step of closing an Embassy – in this case in Ireland – in response to the Irish government’s and people’s continuing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel activities.
“We applaud Foreign Minister Sa’ar for his strong action following a pattern of official anti-Israel activity by Ireland’s government,” said Zionist Organization of America National President Morton A. Klein. “This is a dramatic move by Israel though Ireland brought this on itself by its actions since the Hamas-led Palestinian Arab massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023,” Klein said.
Klein lambasted Ireland’s government for lying about Israel on the world stage, including falsely accusing Israel of “genocide;” covering up Palestinian Arab crimes against humanity; and rewarding decades of Palestinian Arab murder and terrorism by recognizing a Palestinian Arab state on the one hand, as well as for fostering a climate of Jew-hatred in the nation. Last May, Ireland formally recognized a “Palestinian” state – seven months after the Oct. 7 massacre. Ireland won’t be paying the consequences of a Palestinian terror state on Israel’s longest border – Israel will!
“What the Irish government is doing is unconscionable,” Klein asserted. “Falsely accusing Israel of slaughtering civilians and starving children in the Gaza Strip is a blood libel – especially when there is powerful evidence that the opposite is true and in this climate of unbridled anti-Jewish attacks,” Klein asserted. “Israel is both risking the lives of its soldiers and risking the escape of Palestinian Arab murderers and terrorists when Israel alerts populated areas that it plans to target a specific area. Israel’s army is among the most humane in the world. In addition, Israel has allowed into Gaza countless tons of food and other aid including medication and anti-polio vaccines.”
Ireland earlier this month formally joined a case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip – and Ireland asked the court to expand its definition of what constitutes “genocide” so as to include actions allegedly committed by Israelis.
Klein noted that “The government of Ireland is working vigorously to make an already corrupt and viciously anti-Jewish International Court of Justice even worse – trying to get the ICJ to change the definition of what it considers is ‘genocide’ in order to include Israel’s alleged actions in Gaza in a defensive war in response to the Oct. 7 attack against Israelis.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said to Arutz Sheva: “Yesterday, I announced my decision to close Israel’s embassy in Ireland. We do not have a problem with criticism, we’re even used to it. But there is a difference between criticism on one hand, and unilateral hostility and persecution on the other hand. There is a difference between criticism – and antisemitism based on the delegitimization and dehumanization of Israel and double standards towards Israel as opposed to other countries. This is how Ireland allowed itself to behave towards Israel.’”
“Israel has been attacked on each of its fronts. But in Ireland’s statements – Israel is always the aggressor,” Sa’ar said, adding that Ireland has “worked systematically to damage our relations with the European Union and incentivize it to take up anti-Israel positions and actions.”
Sa’ar asserted that “Zionism and Zionists have become derogatory words in Ireland. They called the IDF’s actions war crimes. They crossed all the red lines.” See: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/400825
ZOA’s Klein advised “all supporters of Israel and really all decent people to shun Ireland until the government ends its anti-Israel/anti-Jewish practices, or until there is a new government that ceases attacking and undermining the Jewish state and combats Jew-hatred on the Island. This especially means: Do not visit Ireland!
Ireland has had a mixed history when it comes to the Jewish People and Israel. Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s paternal grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland. The rabbi’s son, Chaim Herzog, grew up in Dublin, was a past president of Israel and served as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Robert Briscoe and Ben Briscoe, a Jewish father and son, were each elected Lord Mayor of Dublin during their political careers.
Meanwhile, there has been a long history of close cooperation and an alliance between the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), the violent terrorist organization that for decades committed murder and other heinous acts in Britain and in embattled Northern Ireland/Ulster in order to unite that region with the rest of Ireland — and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) today headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the predominant faction that comprises the Palestinian Authority. Onetime IRA leader Gerry Adams has also met with Hamas officials. Adams was president of the Sinn Fein, which has been described as the “political wing” of the IRA. See: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/op-ed-contributors/ira-plo-cooperation-a-long-cozy-relationship
According to many reports, the Ireland that the Herzogs and the Briscoes experienced is long gone. There have been reports of extreme anti-Jewish attitudes and activities in Ireland for years – chronicled most notably by Israeli journalist Tuvia Tenenbom in his book The Taming of the Jew and elsewhere. See: https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/level-of-anti-semitism-across-island-of-ireland-is-frightening-says-journalist-tuvia-tenenbom-984542
Israeli Foreign Minister Sa’ar noted that “Ireland is one of the only countries in Europe that has not adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Ireland did not bother to promote measures to fight antisemitism within the country, on the contrary – they only encouraged it.” “Zionism and Zionists have become derogatory words in Ireland.”
You can register your objection to the Irish government’s anti-Israel and anti-Jewish actions by contacting Ireland’s Embassy in Washington. See: https://www.ireland.ie/en/usa/washington/contact/ Geraldine Byrne Nason is Ireland’s Ambassador to America. Please remember to be civil and concise when engaging in discussion.