Irish Jews cry foul over ‘antisemitic’ president’s planned Holocaust memorial speech

Jews in Ireland are up in arms over a planned appearance by Irish President Michael Higgins to mark the country’s Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony later this month.

Higgins has been harshly critical of Israel and has also been accused of downplaying antisemitism and delegitimizing Jewish viewpoints. In December, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called Higgins an “antisemitic liar” and announced the closure of Israel’s embassy in Dublin.

Higgins is scheduled to speak at the annual Dublin commemoration on January 26, marking his sixth such keynote to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

Ireland’s chief rabbi Yoni Wieder noted that in May, Higgins had dismissed Israeli concerns of rising antisemitism in Ireland as “a PR exercise,” alienating many of the country’s Jews.

“President Higgins has neglected even to acknowledge the scourge of contemporary antisemitism in Ireland, let alone do anything to address it. He has failed to take seriously the concerns put to him by representatives of the Jewish community,” Wieder said in a statement carried by several UK news outlets. “With that attitude, I fear his address marking Holocaust Memorial Day will inevitably ring hollow for many Irish Jews.”

Maurice Cohen, who heads the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, said it would be “inappropriate” for Higgins to speak at the event.

“His participation risks offending many in the audience, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who expect dignity and unity on such a significant day,” he stated, according to the JC.

The Dublin-based head of Holocaust Awareness Ireland, Oliver Sears, told the UK Jewish News that “[g]iven President Higgins’ grave insensitivity to Irish Jews, we are deeply disturbed that he will yet again cause further insult.”

In December, Sa’ar lashed out against Higgins on social media platform X after the Irish president accused Israel of seeking to colonize Egypt, as he accepted the credentials of Palestinian ambassador Jilan Abdaljamid.

“Once an antisemitic liar – always an antisemitic liar,” Sa’ar wrote of Higgins.

Once an antisemitic liar – always an antisemitic liar.

Ireland’s President reached a new low, spewing lies that Israel “has breached the sovereignty of three of his neighbors, in relation to Lebanon, Syria and would like in fact to have a settlement in Egypt.”

Let’s get the… https://t.co/cEbhqI4x17

— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) December 17, 2024

That came days after Sa’ar announced that Israel would shutter its embassy in Ireland, citing Dublin’s “extreme anti-Israel policy.”

“The antisemitic actions and rhetoric that Ireland is taking against Israel are based on delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state and on double standards,” Sa’ar said in a statement at the time. “Ireland has crossed all red lines in its relationship with Israel.”

Higgins has repeatedly accused Israel of conflating criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with antisemitism, rejecting accounts from Irish Jews of skyrocketing anti-Jewish sentiment.

“The Irish people are not antisemitic, quite the opposite, for example the first President here, Douglas de hÍde, spoke Hebrew among the five languages that he spoke,” Higgins told the Irish Examiner in May.

Some have accused Ireland’s political leadership, including Higgins, Prime Minister Simon Harris and Foreign Minister Micheál Martin of helping fuel antisemitism due to their harsh censure of Israel over the war in Gaza and unwillingness to tackle the issue.

In May, Sears told the Irish Examiner that he had never seen “such a level of hostility towards Jews as I have experienced over the last seven months,” citing “coarsened rhetoric from elected officials” and “a deafening silence from many.”

Weider told The Times of Israel in November that a rise in “inflammatory rhetoric has created a context in which antisemitism can thrive,” while cautioning against “overstating the extent of antisemitism.”

The Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment on Higgins’s scheduled appearance at the event.

A spokesperson for Higgins told the JC that this would be the sixth year Higgins delivered the address, noting that he had visited Auschwitz to mark the 75th anniversary of its liberation in 2020.

The annual commemoration  scheduled for Sunday is organized by Holocaust Remembrance Ireland with Dublin City Council and Ireland’s Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. It will take place alongside ceremonies in Poland, the UN, Israel and elsewhere marking 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

In 2024, Higgins used his speech to the Holocaust memorial event to highlight the plight of Gazans, while also speaking out against Hamas’s “horrific and morally reprehensible act” on October 7, 2023.

“If we believe that life itself is what is paramount, that all lives matter, then we must acknowledge too that, since 7th October, too many lives, and particularly those of women and children, have been lost, that over half a million people as we speak are at the edge of famine,” he said.

Higgins has said he is a proponent of “ethical remembering,” which his administration has described as meant to highlight the voices of marginalized victims and accept openness to commemoration on their terms.

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