FM Sa’ar defends Dublin embassy closure, brands Irish premier an antisemite
Top Israeli diplomat accuses Ireland of having ‘encouraged’ Jew hatred, slams it for backing ‘politicized proceedings’ against Israel at ICC
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday defended his decision to close Israel’s embassy in Ireland, saying that Dublin “encouraged” antisemitism under a prime minister he accused of hating Jews.
“There is a difference between criticism,” said Sa’ar in a meeting of his New Hope faction, “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.”
Sa’ar pointed out that Ireland is one of the only European countries that has not adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. “Ireland did not bother to promote measures to fight antisemitism within the country, on the contrary,” he argued, “they only encouraged it.”
The foreign minister charged that Ireland supports “the politicized proceedings being conducted at the ICC against Israel and its leaders,” and was acting to change the definition of genocide to target Israel at the International Court of Justice. He said that Ireland ״worked systematically to damage our relations with the European Union and incentivize it to take up anti-Israel positions and actions.״
Sa’ar also noted Ireland’s “antisemitic Prime Minister Simon Harris” accused Israel in an interview of starving children and killing civilians. “Is Israel starving children? When Jewish children died of starvation in the Holocaust, Ireland was at best neutral in the war against Nazi Germany.”
“Israel will not be a punching bag for every antisemite in the world to beat on,” Sa’ar declared. “Israel will not continue business as usual when that happens.”
Harris has rejected Israel’s criticism, called the decision to close the embassy deeply regrettable and said Ireland would always stand up for human rights and international law. On Monday, he defiantly stated that Israel will not “silence Ireland.”
“You know what I think is reprehensible? Killing children, I think that’s reprehensible. You know what I think is reprehensible? Seeing the scale of civilian deaths that we’ve seen in Gaza. You know what I think is reprehensible? People being left to starve and humanitarian aid not flowing,” he told reporters in Dublin, according to the Guardian.
Officials from both countries have said diplomatic relations will be maintained between Jerusalem and Dublin following the Israeli move move, with Ireland also stressing it will keep its embassy in Israel open.
Ireland has been one of Israel’s most outspoken critics throughout the war in Gaza, which broke out on October 7, 2023, with Hamas’s unprecedented attack in which 3,000 terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, mostly civilians.
Israel recalled its ambassador in May after Ireland became one of three EU countries that said they would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. Ireland has not recalled its envoy to Israel. In November, the Irish parliament passed a nonbinding motion declaring that “genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza.”
And last week, Ireland’s cabinet voted to join the case accusing Israel of perpetrating “genocide” during its war with Hamas in Gaza, brought by South Africa at the International Criminal Court in The Hague last year.
Aside from the Irish government’s views and actions regarding the war, a report published last month by education monitoring group IMPACT-se exposed profound distortions of the Holocaust, Israel, Judaism and Jewish history in textbooks used in Irish public schools.
Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.