When an openly pro-Hamas Palestinian journalist in Ireland publicly threatened me with violence, I received no goodwill or support from the thousands of Irish people defending the Irish Nazi in France. They largely took the journalist’s side. When that same journalist harassed and incited against the only kosher restaurant in the country, there was no outrage on Irish Twitter about the fact that a non-Irish extremist threatened an Irish business and Irish livelihoods. When that same journalist grotesquely insulted and defamed one of our own Holocaust survivors, a man who spent decades educating young Irish children about the Shoah, mere days after his death, there was no anger on Irish Twitter that someone who had contributed so much to Irish society was being so disrespected. The fact that Irish Twitter has largely come out to excuse, diminish, and defend the man in France is remarkably telling. This man threatened on camera to ‘put a f*cking bullet’ in the head of a Jewish woman. Also on camera he called two Jews ‘f*cking pigs’ repeatedly. He said ‘come back Hitler’ on camera after allegedly saying he was ‘sorry Hitler didn’t finish the job’ before he was filmed. …And yet he is given all the benefit of the doubt in the world. Every conceivable grace is afforded to him. He was the offended party, he was provoked, we must protect this Irishman. Where was the benefit of the doubt for those of us whose only crime was speaking openly about our observations of prejudice in Irish society and bias in the Irish establishment? There was none. From the beginning we were smeared as having an agenda, of being paid, even of being foreign intelligence. Where was the urge to protect Irish people when it came to an Irish woman being openly threatened by a non-Irish extremists who subsequently denigrated an Irish Holocaust survivor? It did not exist, I was the one attacked for merely speaking openly about the fact that he had threatened me. This double standard in who is afforded grace of benefit of the doubt and compatriot solidarity, is far more damning on Irish society than a lone Irishman going on a Nazi tirade. A man who speaks for no one but himself and brings shame to our country. A shame that none of us who have been combatting antisemitism in Ireland would ever dream of doing, despite all the vitriol and abuse we have faced from our own Irish brethren.

I would actually go further: I would contend that the adoption of the Palestinian cause as being core to Irish identity has been the most culturally, diplomatically, and reputationally catastrophic move for our country in the last decade. Culturally speaking the dominance of Palestine in the arts has eroded the focus on our own stories and talent, in addition to cultivating an atmosphere of exclusion and bigotry. My own grandmother spent her entire professional career in the Irish theatre and film industry. I often think about what she would feel if she were alive to see the (both state funded) Abbey Theatre and National Concert Hall refuse to host a play about October 7th. What a tragic state of affairs for Irish theatre this egregious censorship is. Diplomatically, we have embarrassed ourselves on a world stage with our self-righteous posturing as all-knowing moral arbiters on this issue. At this point every sane politician knows it, which is why most members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been uncharacteristically silent on Israel/Palestine as of late. I have friends in Brussels who tell me that Irish MEPs are a known laughing stock with their deranged tirades. Reputationally, I think we are aware by now what it has caused us. Irish people can throw a conspiratorial hissy fit and claim it is a ‘smear campaign’ all they like. The reputation has been solidified. How could it not when a major Irish music band scream ‘up Hamas, up Hezbollah’ on stage and our media class continues to platform and laud them? How could it not when an Irish television presenter on our state broadcaster brings up Palestine when talking about an attack on British Jews? How could it not when a former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) refers to a young Irish child saved from Hamas captivity as being ‘lost and found’? It goes on and on and on. Irish people have every right to feel deeply about the Palestinian cause and advocate strongly in support of it. What should never have been done, however, is the imposed adoption of the Palestinian cause as being core to Irish identity by our political, media, NGO, and academic class. It has resulted in Irish people downplaying, excusing, and in some cases celebrating great evils being done in this cause’s name; because it was positioned as our own. It is not. It has never been and it will never be.