Ireland, a country with a tiny number of Jewish residents, seems to be populated by an inversely proportional rate of antisemites.

The rhetoric at a meeting of the Dublin city council following the revocation of its decision to rename Herzog Park due to an international outcry was rife with feverish hatred and antisemitic tropes.

It should be noted that Jewish-Irish influencer Rachel Moiselle noted that the initial proposal for the park’s name change was made in October 2023!

“Yes, you read that correctly,” she wrote. “After the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, there was an immediate push to propose to erase Irish-Jewish history.”

City council members at the meeting blamed the “Zionist lobby” and “Israeli intelligence agents” for the outcry against the decision, with one saying that honoring a “monster” like Chaim Herzog shows that the “state of Israel itself is illegitimate.” He also accused Herzog of being guilty of “ethnic cleansing, genocide, racism, and apartheid.”

Another council member, Pat Dunne, blamed Israeli intelligence agents and the IDF for the push against the move. “I’m further convinced that whatever phone calls were made to our CEO and to other officials probably emanated from Israeli intelligence attached to the Israeli Defense Forces because they’re active in every issue in relation to Palestine,” Dunne said. “Trace it all the way back, and you’ll find that’s the source.”

Councillor Lesley Bryne hinted that “Jewish money” is behind the furor. Moiselle explained that there are two parks set to be renamed, and according to Byrne, the outcry over the removal of the name of Herzog Park, located in the heart of the Jewish community, was not due to antisemitism but to Jewish money.

‘It really strikes me of the different demographic of the constituencies where both of these parks exist, and it yet again consolidates possibly the sense that there are some members of society that are deemed more important and more valuable than others depending on what their Eircode is,” Byrne said.

“This was met with applause,” Moiselle wrote. “But always remember, folks, there is no antisemitism in Ireland.”

Moiselle also noted the following points about the meeting:

1. Something that a few councillors touched upon was that the Herzog Park name change was neither proposed by nor wanted by the community in which the park is located. As Labour councillor Dermot Lacey noted: this was not a local community initiative—the only community in Ireland that still maintains a significant Jewish presence. This was an external campaign seeking to impose a name change on a community that does not want it.

2. A few councillors, even those who expressed strong solidarity with Palestine, were honest enough to note the overwhelming amount of emails that were sent to them by the Irish Jewish community—ones expressing hurt and distress at this name change. Despite cynical tokenization, one thing could not be clearer: the name change is near unanimously opposed and acknowledged as antisemitic by the Irish Jewish community. One evidently very decent Fine Gael councillor, Colm ’O’Rourke, appeared visibly upset when talking about the emails sent to him.

3. It is very clear that had the motion not been withdrawn due to it not being legally sound—which was of course only looked into because of public pressure—the motion would have gone ahead. The sane councillors were vastly outnumbered by the deranged ones.

4. The manager at the meeting seemed to reveal that the initial proposal for this name change came in October 2023. Yes, you read that correctly. After the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, there was an immediate push to propose to erase Irish-Jewish history.

5. We really are not being led by our best and brightest.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)