Mick Hartley

Ireland once again – from the JC:

An Irish publican has claimed his pub is enjoying “loads of business” after banning “Zionist” customers.

The Celtic Marine Bar in Bundoran, a picturesque town on Ireland’s Atlantic coast popular with tourists, put up a sign last week week saying, “all Zionists are barred from The Celtic Marine Bar. Stop the genocide. Free Palestine.”

The publican, Aaron Nealis, told the JC that the Zionist ban was bringing in “loads of business” and that locals “love it”. If any supporter of Israel tried to buy a pint of Guinness in his establishment, he added, he would “put them out”….

The widow of a Jewish man who regularly visits Bundoran said the banner had left her “extremely upset”.

In a complaint directed to the local tourism board, Sally Wickham wrote: “I usually enjoy visiting your lovely town. It is safe and welcoming and I love running or dog walking with my friends down the promenade at night. However, on my last visit, I was confronted by hate speech…

“I refer to the giant banner on the Celtic Marine Bar Restaurant. If it said No Catholics, Muslims, etc, I am sure it would have been removed by now. I hope this does not reflect the true nature of your town and that you are not antisemitic.”

Nealis insisted that he was not prejudiced against Jews. “Being anti-Zionist isn’t being antisemitic because Palestinians are semitic, Israeli Jews are not semitic,” he wrongly claimed.

“They’re not from the Middle East,” he insisted. “Zionism isn’t Judaism. Zionism is a political movement.”