Remembrance Sunday cathedral service ‘hijacked’ by anti-Israel sermon

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Ireland said Oxley’s comments were a “libel against the state of Israel” and accused him of “hijacking” the solemn memorial service.

The spokesperson said that the rant was “divorced from reality” and “wilfully ignored the complexities of the Middle East”.

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI) called for the church to distance itself from Oxley’s “inflammatory rhetoric”.

JRCI chair Maurice Cohen told the JC: “It is profoundly distressing to our Irish Jewish community to see such a hateful sermon be delivered.”

Oxley suggested Israelis and Jews have “a supremacist ideology”, according to Cohen, which the Jewish leader said was “a dangerous and harmful generalisation that promotes age-old antisemitic stereotypes”.

Cohen said the canon’s language “dehumanises the Jewish community, falsely portraying them as inherently oppressive and cruel, without regard for the complexities of the region’s ongoing conflict or the defensive measures taken by Israel.

“Honouring the fallen should be a time for unity and reflection, not for fostering division.”

​Speaking to the packed cathedral, Oxley claimed that soldiers memorialised on Remembrance Sunday “did cruelties as well as braveries” and “war was ugly”, according to an extensive report on his comments published on the website of his dioceses.

He listed what he claimed was a litany of violent acts committed by the Israel Defence Forces. Israel, he said, had a “policy of targeting schools and hospitals and mosques” and was intentionally starving Gazans.

“Going back again and again to bomb people who have already been deprived of home and happiness and everything else – is such cruelty necessary?” the canon asked.

Oxley said this behaviour “dehumanised the aggressor as well as the victim” and suggested Israel had consistently refused to take responsibility for its actions.

“The unending mantra of the IDF: this is the fault of Hamas. But it is your hands that have pulled the trigger,” he said. 

While Oxley noted the October 7 attack committed by Hamas in southern Israel was “a deliberate cruelty”, he asked: “Is it inevitable that the abused should become abusers in their turn?”

Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, was recalled after the Irish government announced its decision to recognise Palestine – a move that Israel Katz, then foreign minister, said rewarded terrorism.

President Higgins has also sparked controversy over his correspondence with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

He penned a gushing letter to President Masoud Pezeshkian offering “condolences” for the death of President Raisi, also known as the “Butcher of Tehran”.

The Irish president’s office told the JC: “This event is attended by the president of Ireland each year, where the president lays a wreath in remembrance of all those who have died in war.

“As you will appreciate, the presence of the president at this annual event is of particular importance in the context of the different political traditions on the island of Ireland.”

Canon Oxley told the JC: “In delivering my sermon, I speak only for myself. I do not speak on behalf of the Church of Ireland, or of St Patrick's Cathedral. As our church does not believe in infallibility, it is quite conceivable that I am mistaken. No one is obliged to agree with me. However, I am prepared to stand over my remarks.

"There was no hatred in my sermon, except a hatred of all theories that make one group of people more valuable than another, so that some become expendable. And a hatred of merciless cruelty, regardless of who is doing it.”

A spokesperson from St Patrick’s Cathedral added, “In St Patrick’s Cathedral we continue to pray daily for peace in all the countries of the Middle East. We pray fervently for an end to all wars and the human suffering that they bring. Everybody, of all faiths, is welcomed in St Patrick’s Cathedral.”

The JC sought comment from the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough.