A man filmed launching a drunken antisemitic tirade was arrested by police
July 20, 2025 15:37An Irish man launched drunken antisemitic tirade at another passenger on board a Dublin bus over the weekend.
The abuser repeatedly called the man a “genocidal Jew” and accused an Irish woman who intervened of “white-knighting for the Jew”, according to a video taken by the man who was target of the tirade and shared on social media on Saturday.
“There he is, the Jew,” the man can be heard saying at the start of the brief video, in which he goes on to say: “The genocidal Jews... they are murdering...they’re the genocidal Jews” while his arm is outstretched towards the victim, as if to slap the phone from his hand.
An Irish woman who came to the passenger’s defence can be heard chastising the man, saying, “Are you being hateful right now, or is he being hateful right now?” before the man begins to accost her for standing up for “the Jew, the Jew, the Jew.”
In a statement to the JC, Irish police said that shortly after 11pm on Friday, 18 July, “Gardaí from Rathmines responded to reports of a disturbance on a bus in Rathgar, Dublin 6. A male in his 30s was arrested at the scene under public order legislation and brought to a Garda Station in the Dublin Region.”
The statement added that the man was “later released without charge” but “investigations into the incident are ongoing”.
A representative of Dublin Bus confirmed that an incident took place onboard Route 15 and that the driver “contacted our central control requesting the assistance of An Garda Síochána and a call was placed to emergency services.”
Former Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter condemned the incident on Saturday, writing on X: “Just a normal Friday night trip on a bus in Dublin, Ireland, confirming the Irish President & the Irish govs repetitive assertions that there’s no antisemitism in Ireland & denial that their daily false depiction of the tragic ongoing Israel/Gaza war is not escalating antisemitism.”
He added in another post: “Had a Muslim been subjected to comparable Islamophobia or a black person to comparable racism, condemnation, like confetti at a wedding, would have rained down from the entire political establishment.”
Cllr Jim O’Leary, representative of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county, also denounced the incident: “This makes me sad as an Irish person. Clear antisemitism. The language being used consistently by our national political leaders reeks of double standards and antisemitism. Their language emboldens views and behaviours anathema to reasonable people. Will they condemn it?”
Israeli writer and social media activist Hen Mazzig commended the “brave woman” who stood up to defend the Jewish passenger but added that, “Naturally, the man called her a genocide supporter.”
“This harassment is the direct result of the media, politicians, and teachers spreading the lie that the Jewish State is ‘committing genocide,’” Mazzig wrote in a post on X. “At best, it results in a drunken man harassing a Jew on a bus. At worst: a young couple murdered outside a Jewish museum. What scares me isn’t the antisemitic rant. It’s that only one person stood up.”
The incident occurred amid an ongoing Irish attempt to criminalise the import of goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, a bill which has faced significant criticism from Israeli and Jewish leaders who believe it to be discriminatory.
It is the latest in a series of ruptures between Israel and Ireland, one of the Jewish State’s most outspoken critics over its ongoing war in Gaza. In December 2024, Israel closed its embassy in Dublin after Ireland recognised Palestinian statehood and passed a parliamentary resolution accusing Israel of committing genocide.
Journalist David Collier wrote of the incident on Friday night: “This is Dublin - the capital of Ireland - the most antisemitic nation in Europe - and what you see is the result of decades of anti-Israel demonisation pushed out by parts of the Church, Irish media and Irish politics.”
Rachel Moiselle, an Irish PhD candidate and writer on social media, also commented on the incident, writing on X: “If the antisemite who assaulted and verbally abused a Jewish man on a bus in Dublin had been sober enough to remember to substitute ‘Jew’ for ‘Zionist’…there undoubtedly would be thousands of people on this site praising him.”
The Dublin Bus press office has been contacted for comment.