A story about Irish anti-Semitism was published in Israel’s top-selling newspaper Yediot Aharonot on Nov. 16, 2011, which quoted an unnamed official at the Israel Foreign Ministry as claiming that the Irish administration was “feeding its people with anti-Israel hatred. What we are seeing here is clear anti-Semitism." Ireland had undoubtedly become the most hostile country to Israel in the European Union, "pushing all of Europe's countries to a radical and uncompromising approach."
This statement was immediately rejected by a spokesman for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs who said: “The Government is critical of Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is not hostile to Israel and it is clearly wrong to suggest as much,” he said. “The notion that this Government is or would be trying to stoke up anti-Israeli feeling is untrue. We are not hostile to Israel. We are critical of policies, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories. These are not the same things.”
The article in Yediot Aharonot gave an outrageous anti-Israel display held over the weekend on Dublin's main pedestrian street as evidence of hatred against Israel reaching new levels in Ireland. It claimed that the demonstration presented IDF soldiers as Nazi troops and was sponsored by the Dublin City Council (see picture above).
The only problem with the statement was that it did not seem to fit the facts. Pictures of the event did not show protesters wearing Nazi uniforms and the Dublin City Council rejected the claim that they sponsored the demonstration: a spokesman for the council said “Dublin City Council did not sponsor the event referred to in the article and has no knowledge of it.” Dublin City Council allows non-violent protests and demonstrations under the principle of ‘freedom of expression'.
The demonstration was by The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign during which participants dressed as Israeli soldiers and pointed fake weapons at other participants representing Palestinians. The street protest against Israel was a mute affair, poorly attended, and reported with a lack of enthusiasm.
The demonstration was also meant to criticize building materials group Cement Roadstone Holdings, which has investment in Israel. “CRH . . . holds a 25 per cent shareholding in a holding company called Mashav which, in turn, owns Nesher Cement. We do not control Nesher nor do we have any control over Nesher’s operations,” a spokesman for CRH said.
A comment on the article by Udi Shoval, who seems to be an Israeli living in Dublin, described the demonstration: as there is a Muslim minority in Ireland (as in all Europe) and they're responsible for this poor display. A bunch of very loud anarchists helped them - those anarchists are loud, but few, and everybody dislikes them. Irish people are very nice and kind of like Israelis, and like us they're worried by the rise of fundamentalist Islam.
The article in Yediot Aharonot also claimed: According to the sources, when Israeli Ambassador Boaz Modai arrived in Dublin, one of Ireland's leading newspapers greeted him with an article titled, "Welcome to hell."
What seems to be a personal attack on the ambassador was written by journalist Kevin Myers and published in the Irish Independent on Aug 20, 2010. Kevin is known for writing pro-Israel articles over the years. The term “Welcome to hell” was taken out of context since the article is quite positive about Israel and critical of Irish foreign policy.
The article says: “The Israeli Ambassador Zion Evonry is returning home: his time in Hell is done. Now it is the turn of some other poor bastard in the Israeli diplomatic service to come over and meet the conjoined forces of hatred, ignorance, blindness, hysteria and prejudice that the name ‘Israel’ invariably inspires.”
Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Boaz Modai, distanced himself from claims of Irish anti-Semitism. “I don’t think Ireland is anti-Semitic, although there may be isolated anti-Semitic incidents. Mr Modai told The Irish Times: “In my opinion, the silent majority here is either pro-Israel or indifferent.”
Recent Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Acts in Ireland
A research study on anti-Semitic sentiments within the Irish nation can be found in the book “Pluralism and Diversity in Ireland,” by Father Micheál Mac Gréil, a Jesuit priest and sociologist. He found that twenty-five percent of Irish people wouldn’t allow Israelis to become Irish citizens, and eleven percent of Irish men and women wouldn’t allow any Jew from taking up citizenship. Forty percent of Irish people wouldn’t allow a Jew into their family.
Collectively, Israelis had one of the lowest "favourable" ratings among Irish people, ranking 44th out of 51 groups including homosexuals, alcoholics and travellers.
The results are based on surveys carried out by the Economic and Social Research Institute between November 2007 and March the following year.
The conclusion that can be reached from the research is quite positive for Jews in Ireland since only a relatively small group of only 11% holds serious anti-Semitic views. The refusal to allow a Jew into their family would be expected in a Catholic population defending its family religious continuity – still a majority of 60% are ready to accept Jews into their families. Negative attitudes towards Israelis are consistent with the recurring media and political attacks on Israel without counter arguments that would occur if the public had more contact with Jews and Israelis.
Fr Mac Gréil cautioned, however, in an Irish Catholic newspaper that: "There is a real danger that the public image of 'Israeli' can lead to an increase in anti-Semitism." But Jason Adam Max Molins, born in Dublin, former captain of the Ireland cricket team between 2001 and 2005, painted a different picture of the reception Irish Jews receive. He said: "If anything, I have had the opposite of what the figures show. I met and married an Irish girl who had a strong Catholic upbringing, but she converted to Judaism. "When I first met her family they did not know many Jewish people. They didn't know about Judaism, but they researched and learnt about it and welcomed me into the family.
Although many Jews complain of increased apprehension in the community relating primarily to events in the Middle East and Europe, there appears to be no perceptible change in attitudes among the Irish population.
When it comes to actual anti-Semitic incidents, occurrences of anti-Semitism are considered to be few and at a low level, with no evidence of systematic targeting of the Jewish community in Ireland. Good relations exist between the local police and representatives of the Jewish community and meetings are held between the Garda Racial & Intercultural Office and Jewish communal leaders
The Jewish community recorded only two anti-Semitic incidents in 2003, in the category of abusive behavior (in-your-face, telephone and targeted abusive/anti-Semitic letters), compared to 12 in 2002 and 2 in 2001. There was one instance of distribution of anti-Semitic literature, compared to none in the two previous years. Although many Jews complain of increased apprehension in the community relating primarily to events in the Middle East and Europe, there appears to be no perceptible change in attitudes among the Irish population.
There were 13 recorded incidents of anti-Semitic crime in the year 2010, up sharply from five from the previous year and the highest such figure for half a decade.
In recent years, there have been a few reported incidents of suspicious activity around Jewish community buildings. Such incidents are reported to and dealt with by An Garda Siochana, (national police).
Indeed, most reports relate to graffiti of an anti-Semitic nature at Jewish sites and in city streets, to anti-Semitic undertones or sentiments expressed in the media (such as references to the ‘huge’ influence of the Jewish vote in America), and/or to inappropriate comments in daily life (such as references to ‘the rich Jews’). Additionally, placards showing the Star of David equated with the swastika and the slogan “Zionism=fascism,” references to the ‘Palestinian Holocaust’ and burning of the US and Israeli flags were noted at pro-Palestinian and anti-Iraq war demonstrations.
In contrast to hate crimes against Jews, there are quite a large number of incidents relating to Israel or Israelis. Tom Carew, of the Ireland-Israel Friendship League, said: "The Israeli Embassy in Dublin is the most picketed in the country with protesters from IRA break-away groups, Islamist elements and some church groups.
"But they are very small groups and it's the same names and faces all the time. Whether there's an anti-Israel feeling seeping into the public conscience I don't know. It may be a problem related to Arab propaganda in recent years."
On July 20, 2006, unknown persons painted anti-Semitic graffiti on the exterior wall of an office building during the conflict involving Israel and Hezbollah. The police promptly removed the graffiti but never identified those responsible for it. The Israeli embassy in Dublin received anti-Semitic and anti-Israel phone calls in July. A rabbi's office in Dublin also received several phone calls in July 2006 that expressed outrage at Israel's actions during the conflict with Lebanon.
On August 11, 2006, a pair of children's shoes with the word "Qana" (a reference to the conflict involving Israeli and Hezbollah) written in red ink was found outside the synagogue in Cork.
On January 12, 2007, a man previously convicted of acts of vandalism against Jewish establishments in Dublin was convicted of sending offensive e-mails to Jewish community individuals. He received a six-month suspended sentence contingent on his continued psychiatric treatment. On September 22, 2006, two swastikas and an expletive were painted on the gates and wall of a college. The police were investigating at the end of the reporting period.
May-15-2008 The entrance to Herb Meyer’s home in Dublin was vandalized with the words “Go Home Jew”, with a swastika also spray-painted on his driveway wall and more swastika symbols and graffiti sprayed on the windows of the house (see picture above).
In the Yediot Aharonot article, a number of incidents against Israel in the year 2011 are mentioned. A Facebook group called for heavy rocks to be thrown at the Israeli Embassy building in Dublin. Anti-Israel elements vandalized a Dublin auditorium slated to host a concert by Israeli singer Izhar Ashdot. Israeli Embassy officials were attacked by Irish hackers, and anti-Israeli elements attempted to disrupt an Israeli film festival organized by the embassy.
Extreme Right-Wing Organizations
There are several extreme right-wing organizations but they are small and not particularly active.
The Limerick-based white supremacist Democratic People's Party (DPP) claims to oppose a “black Ireland” and to stand up for “real Irish people.” Although apparently only a loose gathering of people with little support, the DPP applied to join the Dáil's Register of Political Parties, but was turned down on the grounds that it did not satisfy the requirements of the electoral acts. Since the party's website was removed by the service provider, a person claiming to be from the organization has been placing regular bulletins on the Ireland discussion page of the Stormfront white supremacist website.
Although apparently defunct since a series of attacks on a Jewish butcher's shop in Dublin in 1986, the National Socialist Irish Workers' Party (NSIWP) was suspected of involvement, along with other small fascist groups in 1997, in the distribution of racist and anti-refugee material in Dublin.
Another group that has ceased functioning in Ireland is the neo-Nazi National Alliance, also known as NSRUS, which adopted the motto “No to a Black Ireland.” According to the Sunday Times – Ireland of 27 July 2003, the group quit Ireland because it is not fascist enough. Al Byrne, the New York-based head of the organization, was quoted as saying: “The primary intention of NSRUS was to build a professional activist organization to deliver the message of racial integrity and independence to the residents of Ireland. Tens of thousands of stickers and leaflets were distributed to achieve this modest ambition; however the response was pitiful… The people seem blind to the alien invasion.”
A few groups such as the Irish Hammerskins and Women for Aryan Unity were known to exist in Ireland some years ago but there is no information about current activity.
The British National Party is reportedly prepared to offer financial or other assistance to support anti-immigrant groups in Ireland. This fact has been confirmed in relation to the shadowy Dublin-based small, far right Irish People’s Party, as well as to the Immigration Control Platform, which claims to be neither racist nor discriminatory.
Ireland Awake has a white pride website with links to Holocaust revisionist sites, the immigration resistance movement and the Irish nationalist movement, as well as to nationalist white pride music and a listing of “Irish enemies and traitors.”
Pro-Palestinian and Islamist Groups
There is a good deal of activity with pro-Palestinian and Islamist groups in Ireland. They are particularly active in the flotillas aimed at breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza (see below).
The foremost activist group identifying with the Palestinian cause is the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), which, inter alia, organizes boycott actions and pickets against Israel and Israeli products, lobbies the Irish government and supports Palestinian refugees in Ireland. The IPSC was set up in late 2001 by a group of established Irish human rights and community activists, academics and journalists in partnership with Palestinians now living in Ireland. They have several branches throughout Ireland.
The most prominent supporters of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) are activists from the far left, academics and the trade union movement. The call for a boycott of Israel has been endorsed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU); IMPACT, the largest public-sector union in the Republic of Ireland; and the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA), the largest public-sector union in Northern Ireland. Israel is a soft target in Ireland as there is very little organized opposition to the boycott calls.
In a country where the great majority energetically sympathizes with the Palestinians, perceiving them as a dispossessed nation, denied their right to self-determination by Zionism's neocolonial adventure, the great majority of Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) boycott campaigns have resoundingly failed. For instance, its ongoing efforts to persuade Irish companies such as CRH to divest from Israel and its "National Boycott Days" of Israeli produce have failed to make any impression.
The IPSC's attempt to orchestrate boycotts of the Ireland-Israel World Cup qualifying games in 2005 proved another toe-curling shambles: 3,000 Irish fans traveled to Ramat Gan to watch Ireland's away game, while 34,000 attended the rematch in Dublin. And a well-publicized academic boycott campaign quickly crashed and burned after being denounced by both the Irish government and the European Commission.
Muslims in Ireland
Muslims in Ireland are quite visible in demonstrations against Israel. According to the 2006 Irish census, there are 32,539 Muslims living in the Republic of Ireland, representing a 69% increase over the figures for the 2002 census. The major Islamic centres of Ireland are all said to be linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland (ICCI) is an Islamic complex in Clonskeagh, Dublin, which is collocated with The European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR) (see picture above). It is the largest mosque in Ireland whose building was financed by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum and the Maktoum Foundation of the UAE. The Maktoum family also operates a huge and successful horse racing, breeding, and training operation in Ireland, based in Kildare's Kildangen Stud Farm.
Mosque leaders say that, although Maktoum funding flows steadily, the family pays little to no attention to the operations of the mosque or the ECFR. According to a mosque spokesman, approximately 1,000 Muslims from numerous Islamic countries regularly attend Friday services and around 3,000-4,000 Muslims attend special events at the center.
The Imam of the center is Egyptian Shaykh Hussein Muhammad Halawa, a suspected Muslim Brotherhood supporter. Halawa is also the general secretary of The European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), which is a Dublin-based private foundation, founded in London on 29 March - 30 March 1997 on the initiative of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe.
The ECFR aims "to present to the Muslim World and the Muslim minorities in the West particularly" its interpretation of "the manifestation of Allah's infinite mercy, knowledge and wisdom," and how the shariah law clearly embodies the superior rules in life. The ECFR is one of the main channels for the publications of fatwa's by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Muslim scholar affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and his main English-language channel.
Activists from the radical Islamist al-Muhajiroun opened a branch in Ireland in 2003.
Anti-Fascist and Pro-Israel groups
Groups that struggle against fascism and racism in Ireland include the Anti-Fascist Action – Ireland, the Anti Nazi League, the Anti-Nazi Activist, and the left-wing Residents against Racism.
And there are groups that defend Israel:
The Irish Independent, Ireland's largest selling daily newspaper
Northern Ireland Friends of Israel, Launched in March 2009
Irish friends of Israel (their chairman is Sean Gannon)
Irish Christian Friends of Israel, started in the early 1980s, Prayer Rallies in support of Israel’s right to exist, sponsor the annual Jewish/Christian Celebration for Israel’s Independence Day
www.irish4israel.com: challenging Irish attitudes about Israel; promoting a new understanding of the Middle East's only democracy
The Israel Ireland Friendship League: established in 1967. Malcom Gafson is the current President of the League, while the Honorary Secretary is Phillipa Blatt.
Jews in Ireland
The main characteristic of the Irish Jewish community is that it is small and therefore has little political influence and doesn’t provide other Irish citizens with much direct contact. According to the Central Statistics Office, the Jewish population of the Republic of Ireland (Eire) in 2002 numbered 1,790 out of a total population of almost 4 million and 1,930 according to the 2006 census.
The history of the Jews in Ireland extends back nearly a thousand years. Although the Jewish community has always been small in numbers, it is well established, and has generally been well-accepted into Irish life.
The first mention of Jews living in Ireland occurs in the Annals of Innifallen of 1079. However, most of Ireland’s Jews arrived in the 1880s, mainly from Lithuania. The Jewish element of the Irish population reached its peak in the 1940s when it numbered about 5,500 but has been shrinking since then.
Today, southern Ireland’s Cork Jewish community is virtually non-existent, having once numbered about 300. Dublin, which once boasted seven synagogues, currently has three Orthodox and one progressive synagogue. There is still a Jewish school, an old age home and a Jewish museum.
Historically, life for Jews in Ireland has been good. In 1555, when Pope Paul IV issued a papal law to force Jews into Italian ghettos these conditions were not replicated in Ireland. The very same year, 1555, the first Jewish Mayor in Ireland, Mr. William Annyas, was elected in the town of Youghal in Cork County.
One of the most serious incidents of recorded anti-Semitism in Ireland was in 1904, when a Limerick priest of the Redemptorist order, Father John Creagh, incited the local population against “blood-sucking” Jewish money-lenders. (The Redemptorists are a trans-national Catholic religious congregation whose mission is to spread the Gospel to the poor and abandoned.)
His sermons brought about a two-year trade boycott of Jewish businesses in Limerick that was accompanied by harassment and beatings. A teenager, John Raleigh, was arrested by the British and briefly imprisoned for attacking the rabbi of the community, but returned home to a welcoming throng.
Limerick's Jews fled with the almost total departure of the 150-strong Limerick Jewish community. It was an ugly chapter in Irish history but did not lead to any deaths. Many went to Cork where the people welcomed them into their homes. Church halls were opened to feed and house the refugees. As a result many remained. Gerald Goldberg, a son of this migration, became Lord Mayor of Cork. The issue of the Limerick ‘pogrom’ has resurfaced several times since, but in 2003 the Redemptorists in Limerick sought repentance for hurting the Jewish community in the city.
Father Creagh was moved by his superiors initially to Belfast and then to an island in the Pacific Ocean. In 1914 he became Vicar Apostolic of Kimberley, Western Australia, a position he held until 1922. He died in Wellington, New Zealand in 1947. Joe Briscoe, son of Robert Briscoe, the Dublin Jewish politician, describes the Limerick episode as “an aberration in an otherwise almost perfect history of Ireland and its treatment of the Jews”.
In the 1981 general election to the Dáil (Irish Parliament), three members of the Jewish community were elected. The three largest Irish cities, Dublin, Belfast and Cork, have had Jewish lord mayors in this century.
However, historically, there have been cases of ‘institutional’ anti-Semitism and perceived anti-Semitism. This was evident when attempts to settle Jewish refugees in neutral Ireland before, during and after World War II met with consistent government opposition. When Ireland held its first Holocaust Memorial Day on 26 January 2003 in Dublin City Hall, Justice Minister Michael McDowell apologized for a policy that was inspired by “a culture of muted anti-Semitism in Ireland,” which discouraged immigration by Europe’s shattered Jews. He said that “at an official level the Irish state was at best coldly polite and behind closed doors antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling toward the Jews.”
Many Jewish professionals reportedly left the country in the 1950s and 1960s because Ireland’s latent ‘institutional’ anti-Semitism made it hard for Jewish doctors, for example, to obtain beds in Catholic or state-run hospitals, or to join professional associations and clubs.
Gerald Goldberg, who was lord mayor of Cork in 1977, received death threats which he blamed on unbalanced media reporting on the Israeli army's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the death of two Irish peacekeeping soldiers there. As a result he considered leaving Ireland. A synagogue in Cork was fire-bombed at the time. Protests, appeals and anti-Semitic comments/abusive phone calls were often received during those years by Jewish community offices.
Since the outbreak of the second intifada and the war in Iraq, listeners have frequently called into radio talk shows with overtly anti-Semitic or borderline anti-Semitic remarks. For example, they have commented that the war in Iraq was the result of Jewish influence in the US administration – an opinion that has appeared in certain daily newspapers and in discussion with individuals in the Jewish community.
The Irish-Palestinian Connection
Many of the Irish activists supporting the Palestinian cause are leftists influenced by Irish revolutionary propaganda and a long history of fighting a revolutionary war against what they considered to be the British occupation of Ireland (in the past) and Northern Ireland more recently. Since the Irish succeeded in kicking the colonial master Britain out, they identify themselves with the Palestinians as underdogs who are fighting their own occupation.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), an Irish republican paramilitary organization, made common anti-colonialist cause with the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The PLO allegedly provided arms and training for the IRA as early as the 1970s. The IRA’s aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion. To meet its objective, it embarked on a thirty year armed campaign against the British presence in Northern Ireland.
[See Mural picture above from Beechmount Avenue, Belfast, 1982 -- “PLO IRA one struggle”; member of Irish Republican Army and member of PLO with rifles and rocket launcher, Irish tricolour and Palestinian flag -- “RPG Avenue” -- Painted by the Irish Republican Youth Movement.]
In 1997, the IRA announced a ceasefire and in 2005 it formally announced the end of its campaign. The movement's political wing, Provisional Sinn Féin, however, became a growing electoral force in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Since entering politics in the Republic of Ireland, Sinn Fein politicians have been among the most outspoken critics of Israel, with Aengus Ó Snodaigh, the party's International Affairs and Human Rights spokesperson in the Irish parliament, recently describing Israel as 'one of the most abhorrent and despicable regimes on the planet.'"
History of Irish-Israel Relations
Irish-Israel relations are constructed within the framework of Ireland’s own national experience. This was foremost influenced by the Irish struggle for independence from Britain, which lead to an innate Irish sympathy with underdogs, opposition to occupation, and hostility towards partition as a solution to territorial conflict.
In addition, a strong presence of the Catholic Church in Ireland has given high importance to the Holy Land, and in particular, Christian Holy Places in Jerusalem and “The Vatican Factor.”
The Irish attitude was not in favor of the new-born state of Israel. In February 1949, the Irish Cabinet agreed to grant Israel de facto recognition [minimum level of recognition]. Main Irish objective: Avoid any action that construed as Legal recognition and acceptance of Israeli control of Jerusalem. Both countries established diplomatic relations in 1975, though it has only been since January 25, 1996 that the Republic has an embassy in Tel Aviv and Israel has an embassy in Dublin.
In the early years of the modern State of Israel, the government in Ireland supported the general demand that the holy places in Palestine should be suitably protected and the entire area of Jerusalem brought under international control, closely following the official Vatican position on internationalization since 1948.
During the The Suez Crisis of late 1956, when the UK/France/Israel invaded Egypt, FM Liam Cosgrave called it a “deplored and condemned” invasion. The years 1967-1973 saw a rising Irish preoccupation with the Palestinian refugee crisis. Following the Irish EEC entry in 1973, the government in Ireland expressed frustration over ongoing failure to resolve the refugee crisis combined with anger at Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza. In 2003, the Irish government opposed the building of Israel's security wall in the West Bank.
A report issued by the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor in 2007 claimed that the Irish Government was funding through the Irish Foreign Ministry’s Irish Aid department, to the tune of around £600,000, a range of organizations active in the Palestinian territories.
“While [the Irish Foreign Ministry’s] declared objectives are to promote peace and justice through a commitment to human rights and fairness in international relations, Irish Aid funds highly biased and conflict-fuelling NGOs,” says the report. Some of the NGOs receiving funds “are engaged in intense political advocacy campaigns directed against Israel, including promotion of boycotts and the rhetoric of demonization”.
Recent Crises in Irish-Israel Relations
Israeli actions in Lebanon have generated a high degree of Irish preoccupation with Israel's “disproportionate use of force” and contributed to anti-Israeli sentiment over the years. As far back as the early 1970s, the Irish media condemned Israeli raids against the PLO in Lebanon as disproportionate, and this continued following the 1982 invasion and in 2006 during Operation Grapes of Wrath, when the mistaken Israeli attack on a UN post in Qana was said to have killed over a hundred civilians – later reduced to 28 civilian casualties. That sparked an unprecedented outcry among the Irish media, political elite, and public and damaged bilateral relations.
The Irish military participation in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was a continual sore spot because of the issue of Irish peacekeepers being injured or killed while serving in Lebanon. From 1978 to 2000, Ireland's largest-ever military involvement outside its borders was in Lebanon.
In all, 30,000 Irish soldiers served in Lebanon over 23 years. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Irish regularly called in the Israelis to threaten them and discipline them over the treatment of Irish UNIFIL troops. Ireland's foreign minister for much of the 1980s, Brian Lenihan, said that most of his sympathy for Israel disappeared when he saw how they treated the Irish soldiers in southern Lebanon, and this was echoed among the various political parties.
The Irish troops in Lebanon were initially intended to supervise the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the area after an invasion in 1978. Then until 2000, there was prolonged guerilla warfare between Israeli forces and their allies in the South Lebanon Army against first the Palestine Liberation Organization forces and then Hezbollah. UNIFIL was caught in the middle of this conflict.
The role of Irish troops in the UNIFIL mission involved monitoring the cessation of hostilities, manning checkpoints and observations posts, assisting the Lebanese Armed Forces (including extensive mobile patrolling throughout the Irish area of operations) and helping to ensure humanitarian access to the civilian population. In addition to peacekeeping, the Irish also provided humanitarian aid to the local population. Forty-seven Irish soldiers were killed during a 23-year deployment with UNIFIL, which ended in 2001 after Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon.
The next crisis between Ireland and Israel was the Gaza War started on December 27, 2008, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel, which brought about a strong Irish reaction to a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel. After hundreds of rocket attacks, Israel reacted with a surprise air strike. Israel's stated aim was to stop rocket fire into Israel and arms import into the Gaza strip.
On Jan 11th 2009, Sinn Fein Councillor Sean MacManus sought the support of his County Council colleagues in obtaining government diplomatic action on the Israeli slaughter in Gaza.
On January 12-18, 2009, a letter was sent calling for the Israeli ambassador Dr Zion Evrony to be expelled “until such time as there is a complete end to Israel’s war on Gaza and its continued slaughter of the Palestinian people.” The letter was signed by Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Laureate), Kathy Sinnott MEP, Margaret Conlon TD, Maggie Ronayne (NUI Galway), Gerry Grehan (Chairman, Peace People), Dr. Raymond Deane, Kieran Allen (Socialist Workers Party), and many more.
On February 11, 2009, at a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs today, the chairman described the humanitarian position for the civilian population of Gaza, in the aftermath of the Israeli military intervention, as appalling. More than 1,300 people are dead, more than 5,000 are injured and approximately 40,000 are homeless. Access to Gaza for goods and humanitarian personnel continues to be highly restricted. Agricultural lands and schools, including a UN school and the American school, as well as thousands of businesses, have been destroyed.
The committee unanimously passed the following motion: That the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs urges the Irish Government to continue its support for moves to establish an independent international investigation into alleged violations of international humanitarian law during Israel’s military action in Gaza.
These include: the use of white phosphorus in densely inhabited civilian areas, the use of dime munitions, the shelling of the U.N. facilities, including schools which were being used as places of sanctuary by Palestinian civilians, the question of collective punishment.
On July 28, 2009, a cross party delegation from the Oireachtas Foreign and European Affairs Committees visited Gaza, and found that six months after the end of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, 850,000 people in Gaza still rely on the United Nations for food and there is a total absence of meaningful reconstruction.
The committee saw the appalling humanitarian effects Israel’s military action and persistent refusal to end its blockade is having on the people of Gaza. Based on what they observed, the delegation has called for the immediate opening of crossings into Gaza for unimpeded humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials. The European and Foreign Affairs Committees of the Houses of Oireachtas will continue to prioritise the Middle East Peace Process as part of their work programmes as they seek to support a comprehensive peace agreement.
Another crisis in relations occurred with the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January of 2010 regarding the use of Irish passports. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai. He was a founding member of Hamas' military wing and arms dealer. Three alleged Irish citizens that Dubai authorities claimed helped with the assassination were declared by Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs to not exist. In reaction, Ireland in June of 2010 expelled an Israeli diplomat over the use of forged passports.
More recently, the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza has aggravated the Irish-Israel relationship since Irish groups were quite keen on sending activists to travel on the boats that were intercepted by the Israel Navy. After their interception, the victims returned to Ireland with horror stories about their experience.
The first Gaza flotilla was intercepted by the Israel Navy on 31 May 2010 in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The flotilla was organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH) with the intention of breaking the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip. There were eight Irish nationals involved with the flotilla and possibly another five people with dual citizenship.
On the Turkish ship MV Mavi Marmara, boarders faced resistance from about 40 IHH activists – described in a UN report as a "separate hardcore group" – who were armed with iron bars, dinner plates and knives. During the struggle, nine activists were killed, and many were wounded. Ten of the commandos were also wounded, one of them seriously. The five other ships in the flotilla employed passive resistance and the ships were towed to Israel, where all passengers were detained and deported.
An Irish activist detained by Israel during the raid on the Gaza aid flotilla told an Oireachtas committee of his ordeal on June 3, 2010. Shane Dillon appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee said that no-one aboard his vessel the 'Challenger 1' offered any physical resistance to the Israeli troops who stormed it.
He said the Israelis used stun guns, assaulted people with the butt ends of rifles, pushed people to the ground and stood on them. Mr Dillon told the committee that the commandos also used paintball guns and smashed windows. Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams called for Israel Ambassador Dr Evrony to be expelled from Ireland.
Prime-Minister (Irish Taoiseach) Brian Cowen condemned the attacks, describing them as "very serious" and stated that he feels the blockade action was a violation of international law. He also stated that people are allowed to receive humanitarian assistance and that there should be an international investigation into the matter, describing the Israeli action as "disproportionate".
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin was reported to be "furious" that Israel had kidnapped Irish citizens in international waters and brought them to Israel where they would then be deported. He said "They were essentially kidnapped from international waters and taken into Israel.
The MV Rachel Corrie, an Irish-owned vessel with five Irish nationals aboard, arrived two days after the rest of the flotilla. Israel was accused of causing the delay by sabotaging communication systems on the ship. The ship was boarded on June 5, 2010 and ship and passengers taken to Israel. Among the passengers on the Rachel Corrie were Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and former UN Assistant Secretary-General Denis Halliday.
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness (also the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland) said "The Rachel Corrie contained only humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. It is being crewed by Human Rights activists. The Rachel Corrie should have been allowed to proceed to Gaza without Israeli aggression. This is an attack on an Irish flagged vessel and it demands a strong response by the Irish government.
Around 1,000 people gathered on O'Connell Street in Dublin to protest at the attack. They then moved on to the Israeli Embassy in Ballsbridge.
Another attempt to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza occurred on Nov. 4, 2011 when two boats were boarded by the Israeli navy. One of the boats was the Saoirse of Ireland with 14 Irish citizens who were detained for one week. The Israeli Navy said forces moved after repeated calls for the boats to turn around were ignored. It added that the boarding was carried out peacefully and nobody was hurt. In the September 2011 Palmer Report, the UN investigative committee for the 2010 Flotilla to Gaza said that the Israel's naval blockade of Gaza is legal under international law.
News stories published in Ireland carried sharp criticism of the Israeli military and government. Irish coordinator Fintan Lane and Socialist party MEP Paul Murphy who were aboard the ship described the dangers they faced during the Israeli attack and they suffered abusive treatment later in jail. Dr Lane said the takeover of the MV Saoirse took about three hours, with Israeli forces surrounding them, before high-pressure hoses were turned on passengers.
Guns were also pointed at them through windows before they were finally taken away in a violent manner, he claimed. "Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire. The boat nearly sank. The method used in the takeover was dangerous to human life."
The report from MEP Paul Murphy, relayed by the Socialist party, said those on board were shackled and deprived of all personal belongings. "In Givon prison the authorities tried to disorientate us through sleep deprivation and the removal of our watches and the prison clock recording the wrong time. We have been given no time-frame as to how long we will be kept there before the deportation trial. We were denied our right to contact our families within 24 hours of arrest", he is reported as saying.”
The Irish Embassy in Tel Aviv lodged two “firm protests” with the Israeli authorities over the treatment of Irish activists who missed two planned flights due to what the Israeli described as due to security procedures. Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore condemned the Israeli action and voiced the Government’s opposition to Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
A source in Jerusalem complained of silence from officials in Dublin in the face of a “well- organized and well-funded anti-Israel smear campaign”, arguing that the line between legitimate criticism and incitement and hatred had been crossed frequently.
Accusations had been voiced against Israel in the Irish parliament claiming that Israel "kidnapped", abused and undressed Irish nationals who took part in a Gaza-bound flotilla stopped by the Israeli army recently. Israel has strongly denied the accusations and expected Irish Government officials to clearly deny such inaccurate claims of mistreatment and humiliation.
Are the Irish anti-Semitic?
The question of Irish anti-Semitism can be summed up through the words of Rory Miller in October 2006 for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Dr. Rory Miller was born in Dublin, a senior lecturer King's College, University of London, published the book “Ireland and the Palestine Question, 1948-2004” (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2005).
Violent anti-Semitism is rare in Ireland. Although the Irish government has a strong anti-Israel bias, it cannot be faulted as far as protecting the Jewish community is concerned. Neo-Nazis in Ireland are marginal. When the Gaza war broke out there was no trouble against Jews reported in Ireland. Much more of a threat to the Jewish community is the continuous defaming and demonizing of Israel.
In Irish politics sympathies are very much with the Palestinians. "If one were to throw a sack of flour over the Irish parliament, it is unlikely that anybody pro-Israeli would become white. Among the 166 members of the Dáil - the Irish parliament's lower house - and the sixty members of the Senate, not one name springs to mind as a regular defender of Israel. There are either those who do not care or are pro-Palestinians."
"There are anti-Israeli NGOs such as Christian Aid and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign. These have relatively more support among the population than in other European countries. One might define it as an unthinking, visceral sort of attachment to Palestinian suffering.”
"Many people neither understand the facts nor want to know them. Their gut feeling is that an economic boycott is the answer to the Palestinian suffering.”
In Irish politics sympathies are very much with the Palestinians…. Yet Irish politicians are pragmatic. Many believe that Israel has much to offer their country in the economic field and thus think Ireland should not burn its bridges with it. Indeed, 15 thousand Irish work for the Israeli firm Teva drugs in a plant outside Dublin. Ireland is a good case study to prove that no matter how bad political relations are these do not necessarily impact negatively on bilateral economic relations.
Nevertheless, Irish politicians would not be willing to break ranks with the EU and adopt a tougher position on Israel than its European partners.
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