Israel‘s foreign minister has claimed Micheál Martin’s administration and Irish institutions have an “anti-Semitic nature” in fractious exchanges over the Herzog Park row with Ireland’s ambassador to Tel Aviv.
Gideon Saar published video footage online in which he clashed with ambassador Sonya McGuinness over the now-suspended proposal to remove the name of former Israeli president Chaim Herzog from a park in Rathgar, Dublin.
The footage appears to show Ms McGuinness telling Mr Saar he is “ill-informed” about the issue.
Tánaiste Simon Harris spoke in defence of Ms McGuinness on Wednesday, saying she was a formidable public servant who was serving Ireland with distinction.
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However, he said the row over the park’s name had caused international reputational damage to Ireland and said the measures before Dublin City Council (DCC) were “insensitive and ill-conceived”.
“Quite frankly, I think our local authorities should get back to building houses and minding the parks and not interfering in the naming of the parks,” he said.
“It caused a huge amount of hurt to our Jewish community.”
The city council suspended the denaming measures for legal reasons on Sunday, on the eve of a scheduled vote of councillors, after the plan was criticised in blunt terms by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.
Addressing Ms McGuinness at a public event, Mr Saar said: “There is nothing in your system right now that can defend you from that virus of anti-Semitism, except of external pressure and exposing the anti-Semitic nature of this Government of Ireland and other institutions.”
The ambassador had said the “scourge of anti-Semitism” should be “carefully managed and not used for political gain”.
There was no Department of Foreign Affairs comment on the exchange or its publication online.
The Israeli minister said Irish leaders were tardy in their response to news of the denaming measures over the park and said they moved only after Israeli leaders intervened.
“Tell me, please, why it was published on Friday this anti-Semitic proposed decision of the city council of Dublin and nothing happened until Saturday, when I attacked that and the president of Israel attacked that?” Mr Saar said.
“And only then your foreign minister and your prime minister and everyone woke up? Why? Why? Because you’re only responding.”
Ms McGuinness replied: “I’m afraid you’re ill-informed.”
The minister pressed on, saying: “We will continue to do that and we will continue to expose you until you will understand that you cannot deceive the world.”
Ms McGuinness again said: “You are ill-informed, minister.”
Afterwards the former Irish ambassador to the United States, Dan Mulhall, a former Department of Foreign Affairs colleague of Ms McGuinness, backed her in a post on social media website X, praising “her courage in defending Ireland in this way”.
“It is not easy to publicly challenge a foreign minister in a room where most people probably shared his view, but it needed to be done,” he said.
“Conflating the position of a subcommittee of DCC with that of Ireland as a whole is wrong and needed to be contested.”
The Rathgar park was named in 1995 in honour of Belfast-born Chaim Herzog, Israel’s president from 1983 to 1993. He grew up in Dublin. His son, Yitzhak Herzog, is Israel’s current president.
Citing the Gaza war and “solidarity with the Palestinian people”, supporters of denaming have questioned Chaim Herzog’s actions in politics and as a member of Israel’s military.
Ireland’s diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv have soured over Israel’s war in Gaza, set off by the Hamas attack on Israel of October 2023.
Israel ordered the closure of its embassy in Dublin in December last year, accusing Ireland of “extreme” anti-Israel policies, a claim the Government rejects.
