‘You cannot deceive the world’: Sa’ar and Irish envoy spar publicly at Foreign Ministry event

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Irish Ambassador Sonya McGuinness engage in a public argument at a Foreign Ministry event over the Dublin City Council’s now-shelved campaign to rename a city park named for Israel’s sixth president, Irish-born Chaim Herzog.

In a question to Sa’ar at an event for honorary consuls-general, McGuinness says that the fight against antisemitism must be “carefully managed and not used for political gain.”

“Don’t you think facts are important?” she asks, apparently taking issue with Sa’ar’s characterization of the fight over the park’s name.

“Tell me please, why it was published on Friday, this antisemitic proposed decision of the City Council of Dublin, and nothing happened until Saturday, when I attacked that, and the president of the State of Israel attacked it?” he responds, referring to Chaim Herzog’s son, President Isaac Herzog. “And only then your foreign minister and your prime minister woke up.”

“There is nothing in your system right now that can defend you from that virus of antisemitism,” he continues, “except external pressure and exposing the antisemitic nature of this government.”

“We will continue to expose you until you understand that you cannot deceive the world,” Sa’ar concludes.

“You are ill-informed, minister,” McGuinness shoots back.

Sa’ar’s office sends the clip out to Israeli journalists.

On Sunday, Dublin City Council members said they halted plans to rename the park, which had drawn criticism from the Irish and Israeli governments.

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin had argued in a statement on X that the proposal “should be withdrawn in its entirety.” McGuinness’s embassy shared that statement on social media.

“The proposal is a denial of our history and will without any doubt be seen as antisemitic,” Martin said, calling it “overtly divisive and wrong.”