In the two years since the latest war in Gaza began, Ireland has faced unfounded allegations of anti-Semitism in response to the overwhelming public support here for the Palestinian people and outrage at Israel’s actions. Criticism of Binyamin Netanyahu’s government does not imply hostility to the Jewish people and the Government has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to the wellbeing and security of Ireland’s small Jewish community and its place in the national life of the State.
That sentiment faces a test at Dublin City Council on Monday evening when Dublin City Council meets over a proposal to rename a small park in Rathgar named after Chaim Herzog, the Irish-born former president of Israel. A vote had been scheduled on the plan but this was suspended on Sunday evening. Those in favour of the proposal may not intend it to cause distress to Jews living in Ireland but that is its effect.
Herzog Park is in an area that has long been at the centre of Jewish life in Dublin, close to the only Jewish school in the country. Herzog was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin, where his father was Chief Rabbi and an associate of Eamon de Valera, and the decision to name the park after him in 1995 was in recognition of his local roots.
Herzog’s record as a diplomat and a politician in Israel’s Labor Party was mixed and as president he reduced the sentences of three Israeli right-wingers who murdered four Palestinians in Hebron. But he was a centrist figure who favoured a two-state solution and condemned the coarsening of political dialogue and the rise of extremism within Israel.
RM Block
Among the parties represented on Dublin City Council, it is the official position of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, Labour and the Social Democrats that there should be a two-state solution. This acknowledges the legitimacy of the existence of the state of Israel alongside an independent Palestinian state.
Some of the most prominent critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza are Jewish but many Irish Jews cherish their connection to Israel, regardless of their views on the conflict. Many find the prevailing discourse in Ireland to be alienating, and when anti-Semitic incidents occur, they can shake a small and vulnerable community.
Many will see the proposal to rename Herzog Park as an act of erasure that would write the Jewish community out of Ireland’s story. At the very least, it is an insensitive and unnecessary move that sits uneasily with the idea of Ireland as a diverse, tolerant society. Palestine’s friends in Ireland often face the unfair charge that their actions have no practical impact on the conflict or the lives of people in Gaza. But symbolic acts are important to those towards whom they are directed, either in solidarity or otherwise, and gestures matter. This gesture is the wrong one and Dublin City Council should reject it.
