An Israeli woman living in Ireland was forcibly ejected and a number of protesters walked out during President Michael D Higgins’s speech at the Holocaust Memorial Day event on Sunday.
The protest began after Mr Higgins referenced the conflict in Gaza during his speech at Dublin’s Mansion House marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp.
Earlier, he had met and posed for photographs with two of Ireland’s remaining Holocaust survivors, Tomi Reichental and Suzi Diamond, along with a number of relatives of those who died in Nazi concentration camps.
The President said it was an honour that Mr Reichental and Ms Diamond were still with us and he stated that remembrance of the Holocaust is again needed.
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Protesters walk out of Michael D Higgins’s speech at Holocaust Memorial Day event
“We live in times when it seems acceptable by some to employ hatred of the ‘other’ as a rhetorical tool, to use hate speech openly, be it in public or online, thus fanning the flames of intolerance and bigotry, promoting difference as a source of fear,” the President said in his keynote address.
A number of senior representatives of the Jewish community had asked Mr Higgins not to give the keynote address because of critical comments he made about Israeli actions in Gaza, but the President has insisted he has always stood up against anti-Semitism.
Mr Higgins said he hoped that the Israeli families of those who had been bereaved as a result of the October 7th events, and those waiting for release of hostages and those who were killed in “the rubble of Gaza”, would “welcome the long-overdue ceasefire”. As he spoke those words, a number of people walked out and others turned their back on the President.
Lior Tibet, who is a PhD student in UCD and teaches the Holocaust as part of courses on Nazi Germany and modern European History, was forced out of the event by security personnel while other protesters who turned their backs during the President’s speech were asked to leave.
Ms Tibet, who has been living in Ireland for seven years, said she had not intended to turn her back on the President during his speech and only did so after he mentioned Gaza.
Ms Tibet said: “The beginning of the speech was lovely. That’s why we didn’t get up at that point. We are all great supporters of human rights. We have problems with what Israel is doing.”
She told The Irish Times that she and four others stood up and turned their back on the President. She was asked by a woman to leave. “I asked her: ‘How can you take a Jewish person out of this commemoration event? I didn’t do anything wrong.’ This was the only way I could protest about it.”
She contrasted her treatment with pro-Palestinian protesters who waved Hamas flags on the streets of Dublin on Saturday. “I never had a problem with Irish people or the Irish Government. We have two young kids here. I am teaching at UCD as well, but the last 15 months have been unbearable here. We feel like we are talking to the walls when we talk about anti-Semitism. It is really disheartening to us to see no one gives us a voice.”
At the end of the President’s speech, about 20 protesters gathered in the corridor outside the Mansion House room and were not allowed readmission.
Maya, an Israeli woman who asked that her second name not be used, said three members of her family were murdered and five others were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th. One is still in Gaza.
She had met the President last year. “We asked him very nicely not to speak at this ceremony. My grandfather was in the Holocaust and all his family was murdered ... I know first-hand what it is to have family in Gaza kidnapped and what it is to live this war. He should not be speaking.”
[ Micheál Martin: Anti-Semitism is increasing across the world. We must actOpens in new window ]
About 500 people attended the ceremony and most stayed until the end.
The newly appointed Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, read the Stockholm Declaration about Holocaust remembrance. Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar was in attendance, along with the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Emma Blain, and the leader of the Labour Party, Ivana Bacik.
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