Security staff at a Holocaust commemoration event in Dublin on Sunday forcibly removed several people who turned their backs to Ireland's president while he was speaking, in protest against his anti-Israel policies.
The protesters stood up as soon as Michael D. Higgins mentioned Israel during his speech at Dublin's Mansion House, according to Irish broadcaster RTE.
“I believe that those in Israel who mourn their loved ones, those who have been waiting for the release of hostages, or the thousands searching for relatives in the rubble and Gaza, will welcome the long-overdue ceasefire, for which there has been such a heavy price paid,” said Higgins.
Irish Senator Gerard Craughwell condemned the protesters’ removal. “I was standing a few feet away from these protesters. I do not understand why they were manhandled out of the event. All they did was stand up and turn their back” at Higgins, he tweeted.
The speech was ahead of the U.N.-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Amichai Chikli, Israel's Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, said he was "stunned" by Higgins' decision to use a Holocaust commemoration event to "spit in the faces of Holocaust survivors."
Higgins’ allegations against Israel over the past year have led to accusations of antisemitism, which he has denied. He falsely asserted last month that Israel is seeking to build a “settlement” in Egypt.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded to that allegation by saying: “Once an antisemitic liar—always an antisemitic liar.”
In response to Sunday's events, Sa'ar tweeted: "Even on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Irish President Michael Higgins couldn't help himself and resorted to a cheap, despicable provocation."
Despite the fact that Hamas on October 7 carried out the worst one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, "Nonetheless, [Higgins] echoed Hamas's antisemitic lies and propaganda at a Holocaust memorial ceremony, leading to the removal of Jews, descendants of Holocaust survivors, from the event," he continued. "What a despicable person. What a distorted policy. Shame!"
Israel last month shut its embassy in Ireland after the Irish government approved a proposal to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. It has asked the court to change its definition of genocide to better accommodate the accusations against Israel.
In September, Higgins accused, apparently without proof, the Israeli embassy of leaking to the press a letter that he’d sent to his Iranian counterpart in which Higgins wrote that the regime in Tehran would play a “crucial role” in maintaining peace in the Middle East.
Oliver Sears, the founder of Holocaust Awareness Ireland, wrote in a statement on Sunday that he had been "deeply disheartened and disappointed" by Higgins' actions.
"President Higgins was asked by representatives of the Jewish community, including Belsen survivor Tomi Reichental, not to politicise his speech and to focus primarily on the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz," the statement continued.
"Having attended today's Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration with the hope the President Higgins would have understood these sensitivities, issues and and responsibility as the keynote speaker, I am deeply disheartened and disappointed that he chose to dismiss these concerns."
