Many people on social media have been utterly disgusted with comments made by Dana Erlich to RTE.
Ireland “is stuck in an echo chamber” because of its condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli ambassador to Ireland, reports RTE.
Additionally, Dana Erlich asserted that Ireland’s “actions” have crossed the line into antisemitism, even though Israel does not consider criticism of its policies to be antisemitic.
“But when you break down the different criteria under that definition, unfortunately the actions and rhetoric of Ireland have become antisemitic,” reports RTE.
Ms. Erlich expressed her opinion that the Irish media’s enquiries about Israel are “closed narratives and biases” during her appearance on RTÉ’s Six One News.
“I regret to inform you that Ireland is trapped in that echo chamber. Our goal is to dismantle this echo chamber,” she stated, reports RTE.
Ms Erlich added: “You’re repeating a narrative that Hamas wants you to repeat. You’re repeating numbers given by Hamas,” she said, reports RTE.
Although the United Nations has found the death toll supplied by Gaza’s health professionals to be credible, Israel has frequently questioned its veracity.
Additionally, the Israeli military has acknowledged in briefings that the total number of casualties in Gaza is generally accurate, reports RTE.
An estimated 40% more people died in the first month of the war than the official health ministry estimate, according to a report published in the British medical magazine The Lancet in early January.
The Palestinian Health Ministry figures, however, do not distinguish between Hamas soldiers and civilians because the latter do not have official uniforms or distinct identification, reports RTE.
According to recent Israeli estimates, almost 20,000 Palestinian militants have died.
“I’m not denying that the situation in Gaza is tragic. What I’m frustrated by is in Ireland, there is no discussion as to why we have this situation,” Ms Erlich said, reports RTE.
She added: “We need to hold Hamas accountable; it’s something that the Tánaiste also said,” reports RTE.
Irish people are not doing Palestinians in Gaza “any favours,” the departing ambassador added, because they “do not go out to the streets and call out against Hamas.”
“We need to all be focused on that because if you really want to help the Palestinian people, they need to be freed from Hamas,” she said, reports RTE.
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