Mick Hartley

For more detail on why Israel has closed its embassy in Dublin, this from Oliver Sears in Fathom is well worth a read – ‘Anti-Zionism’ has become the new Antisemitism in Ireland:

In Ireland, my home for almost forty years, (I was born in London where I lived until I was 18) vehement opposition to Israel and Zionism, in particular, has seen demonstrations with expressions that are antisemitic, including the flying of Hamas and PFLP flags and chants that hurl invective at all Jews, not just Israelis. On the campus of University College Dublin, a sign rippling with historical irony read, ‘Zionist-Free Zone’. The term Judenfrei, which it echoes, refers to zones which Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the Final Solution, sought to establish in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, by deporting Jews from those areas and murdering them.

The students’ union of Trinity College Dublin also declared that Zionists were not welcome on campus. At the height of the stand-off, Jewish students were offered a safe room if they felt they were in danger. I wondered if it was the attic. The students’ union blockaded the entrance to the Book of Kells, situated in the famous Trinity Long Room. As an important tourist attraction, also representing a valuable source of income, Trinity decided to fine the students’ union, knowing full well that the sums involved could not be met by the union who had no intention of ending their protest. It was Trinity who buckled with little resistance, agreeing to review all their financial connections with Israel, promising to withdraw from all funds that could be associated with the IDF or the occupation or with Israel, in general. The students union also received support from a number of Trinity academics….

Last November, in a Guardian article, written by Rory Carroll and Lisa O’Carroll, the following remarks were ascribed to Niall Holohan, a former high ranking Irish diplomat with long experience in the Middle East as he explained Ireland’s especially vocal pro-Palestinian stance:

Holohan claims that another factor in Ireland’s outlook has been its tiny community of approximately 2,500 Jews – barely 0.05 per cent – that contrasts with sizeable and influential Jewish communities in Britain and France. ‘It’s given us a freer hand to take what we consider a more principled position,’ he said.

So easily the mask slips, endorsing the worst kind of antisemitic conspiracy theory; that Jews act as a cabal influencing governments and economies and (therefore) Ireland with its minuscule Jewish population is ‘freer’ to govern itself independently. Here is a reflexive antisemitism which blindly sees all Jews as a monolith tied duplicitously to Israel, although in this case, we are deemed not large enough to threaten the state. His short statement drips with contempt, revealing how such antiquated anti-Jewish racism presents itself in contemporary political commentary, without the least self-doubt….