New Irish government may modify anti-Israel policies

Jan28
New Irish government may modify anti-Israel policies

JNS Staff

Dublin due to “antisemitic actions and rhetoric” consistently undertaken by the Irish government.

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U.S. President Biden met with Ireland’s President Michael Higgins to participate in a tree-planting ceremony and ring the Peace Bell, April 13, 2023. Credit: The White House via Wikimedia Commons.

The new Irish government may scale back an anti-Israel trade policy, while continuing to support international pressure on the Jewish state.

The Irish parliament met on Jan. 22 to discuss and approve the “draft program for government 2025,” which includes a section titled “The Middle East,” focused solely on Israel and the Palestinians. 

That section states that the government will “progress legislation prohibiting goods from Occupied Palestinian Territories,” referring to a bill that would ban trade with Israelis in Judea and Samaria. 

A recent article in The Irish Mail on Sunday stated that the government, despite using the word “progress,” may not advance the bill at all.

“The bill is now unlikely to ever make the statute books amid deepening fears it will damage Ireland’s corporate and diplomatic relations with the U.S.,” stated the article under the headline “Israeli trade ban will be dropped to appease Trump.” 

Micheál Martin, the incoming Irish foreign minister, told The Irish Times on Jan. 19 that “virtually every section” of the existing Occupied Territories Bill will need to be amended. “It is acknowledged by all sides that the bill was unconstitutional as drafted, and in other areas, it was deficient.”

In addition to addressing the Israel-Ireland trade policy, the government program states that Ireland will continue to support South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide, and plans to continue a call for a “review” of the free-trade agreement between Israel and the European Union. 

It also states that it will “give effect” to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and implement the E.U. declaration on “Fostering Jewish Life in Europe.” Martin announced last week that the government had adopted both, but received activist pressure against the move. He emphasized in a later statement, however, that the decisions are “non-legally binding.”

In December, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar ordered the closure of Israel’s embassy in Dublin due to “antisemitic actions and rhetoric” consistently undertaken by the Irish government.

Protesters dragged out of Irish leader’s Holocaust memorial

The peaceful, silent protest started after Michael Higgins, who has been accused of antisemitism, mentioned Israel in his speech.

Irish President Michael Higgins delivers a speech in Dublin on March 17, 2023. Credit: Diplomat.ie.

Security staff at a Holocaust commemoration event in Dublin on Sunday forcibly removed several people who turned their backs to Ireland’s president while he was speaking in protest against his anti-Israel policies.

The demonstrators stood up as soon as Michael Higgins mentioned Israel during his speech at Dublin’s Mansion House, the RTE broadcaster reported.

“I believe that those in Israel who mourn their loved ones, those who have been waiting for the release of hostages, or the thousands searching for relatives in the rubble and Gaza, will welcome the long-overdue ceasefire, for which there has been such a heavy price paid,” said Higgins.


https://twitter.com/i/status/1883564845536293285

Irish Senator Gerard Craughwell condemned the protesters’ removal. “I was standing a few feet away from these protesters. I do not understand why they were manhandled out of the event. All they did was stand up and turn their back” at Higgins, he tweeted.

The speech was ahead of Jan. 27, the annual U.N.-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, said he was “stunned” by Higgins’ decision to use a Holocaust commemoration event to “spit in the faces of Holocaust survivors.”

<span class=”css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3″>I was stunned by the decision of Ireland’s President, Michael Higgins, to use the events of International Holocaust Remembrance Day as an opportunity to spit in the faces of Holocaust survivors and trample on the memory of six million innocent people murdered by Nazi Germany.

Like a professional antisemite, Higgins masked his blatant hatred for the Jewish people with fabricated tales about genocide in Gaza. In doing so, he not only dishonored the memory of the Holocaust but also grievously insulted nations that have experienced genocide: 1.5 million Armenians slaughtered by the Turks, 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda, and the hundreds of thousands murdered in Darfur.

Let us clarify some important historical facts for general knowledge

Higgins’ allegations against Israel over the past year have led to accusations of antisemitism, which he has denied. He falsely asserted last month that Israel is seeking to build a “settlement” in Egypt.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to that allegation by saying: “Once an antisemitic liar—always an antisemitic liar.”

In response to Sunday’s events, Sa’ar tweeted: “Even on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Irish President Michael Higgins couldn’t help himself and resorted to a cheap, despicable provocation.”

Even though Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, had carried out the worst one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, “Nonetheless, [Higgins] echoed Hamas’s antisemitic lies and propaganda at a Holocaust memorial ceremony, leading to the removal of Jews, descendants of Holocaust survivors, from the event,” he continued. “What a despicable person. What a distorted policy. Shame!”

Israel last month shuttered its embassy in Ireland after the Irish government approved a proposal to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. It has asked the court to change its definition of genocide to better accommodate the accusations against Israel.

In September, Higgins accused, apparently without proof, the Israeli embassy of leaking to the press a letter that he’d sent to his Iranian counterpart in which Higgins wrote that the regime in Tehran would play a “crucial role” in maintaining peace in the Middle East.

Oliver Sears, the founder of Holocaust Awareness Ireland, wrote in a statement on Sunday that he had been “deeply disheartened and disappointed” by Higgins’ actions:

“President Higgins was asked by representatives of the Jewish community, including Belsen survivor Tomi Reichental, not to politicize his speech and to focus primarily on the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,” the statement continued.

“Having attended today’s Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration with the hope that President Higgins would have understood these sensitivities, issues and responsibility as the keynote speaker, I am deeply disheartened and disappointed that he chose to dismiss these concerns.”

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