President Michael D. Higgins allegedly “politicised” yesterday’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in Dublin, according to Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich, reports RTE.
Ms. Erlich said in a social media message that President Higgins’ remarks had “predictably” chastised the state of Israel.
In protest of President Higgins’ address, some individuals departed, while others were escorted out by security, reports RTE.
The purpose of the event was to honour Holocaust victims and commemorate the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of World War II. Some members of the Jewish community objected to President Higgins’ invitation, which caused controversy in the lead-up to the ceremony.
Ms Erlich said: “By referencing the war in Gaza in the manner that he did and at this particular event, while making no reference to any other terrible conflict, he consciously chose to draw an analogy between the conflict in Gaza, started by Hamas’s horrendous massacre of people in Israel and the premeditated and deliberate extermination of six million Jewish people in the Second World War,” reports RTE.
“Sadly, the concerns of the Irish Jewish and Israeli communities about Ireland becoming a hostile place, a place where they are reluctant to express their Jewish identity and heritage, are not being addressed sufficiently,” she added, reports RTE.
Ms. Erlich claimed that President Higgins “chose to ignore the obvious link between the Holocaust and the state of Israel and how our country became a refuge for survivors of the worst genocide in history” .
Those who disagreed with the president’s statements were “forcibly removed from the memorial event and refused entry for the remainder of the commemoration,” which she described as “shocking,” reports RTE.
“This ugly and regrettable scene has been viewed with disbelief and disgust around the world,” she stated, reports RTE.
The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland’s chairperson expressed his profound disappointment that Holocaust Education Ireland, the organisation that planned the remembrance, ignored the Irish Jewish community’s pre-event concerns.
The footage of a young lady he knows personally “appearing to be assaulted by security while she stood silently and peacefully” was perceived as “both disturbing and upsetting” by Maurice Cohen, the chairperson of the Jewish Council of Ireland, reports RTE.
Mr. Cohen stated that he will be meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin while he is at Auschwitz for the 80th anniversary of its liberation.
“I have no doubt that this matter will be a topic that will be discussed by us,” he said, reports RTE.
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