Today I publish a 202-page report on antisemitism in Ireland. It is the result of several years of intense research that involved 1000s of hours of online swimming in extremist sewers. The examples and findings presented in the report should sicken anyone interested in combatting antisemitism. What makes it even worse is the level of ‘antisemitism denial’ coming from the Irish politicians, academics and activists.
When you see what is in the report you will understand that there is no denying this – nor does it have anything to do with ‘criticism of Israel’. Personally I have been down this road before, with in-depth studies of antisemitism in anti-Israel groups in the UK and of course the Labour Party – but what I saw in Ireland – managed to shake even me.
There are almost 200 pages of evidence, and I cannot even begin to do it justice in a single blog. Perhaps it remains possible to give voice to what is inside the report in a single word – and that word is ‘horrific’. The situation is horrific at the political level, horrific at the academic level and horrific at the street level. It is almost impossible to overstate how toxic the situation in Ireland has become.
The evidence is all in the report which can now be downloaded. For those that want the story of ‘antisemitism in Ireland’ in shorthand, here are just a few nuggets:
Politicians in Ireland
Dozens of Politicians in Ireland were found to contribute towards rising antisemitism, and this occurs in a number of ways. The report covers the issue in full detail.
Here is just one example. Some of Ireland’s politicians love to share the most outrageous fake news about Israel.
This is a post about an attack on the trees of Palestinian farmers that was shared by Sean Crowe, a member of the Dail – (the lower house of the Irish legislature). Except it is fake news. The video is actually of a cull of citrus trees in Morocco in 2019, which has been repackaged as anti-Israel propaganda.
Acts such as this, spread hatred on the street. And these politicians do not seem to care about the source of their fake news. The post that Sean Crowe TD shared in order to demonise Israel, was from the FB account of Waleed Al Alami – who is a hard core antisemite and Holocaust denier:
There are lots of examples – and the Crowe shared post is far from the worst. One sitting politician even seems to have liked a post suggesting Hitler ‘may have not been too far wrong‘.
The Irish TD’s don’t hold back – they are at the forefront of the report, and dozens are included. And when it comes to antisemitism – the same old tropes are rolled out over and over again.
This blatant ‘Mossad did it‘ tweet came from Reada Cronin TD. In her world the British electorate didn’t reject Jeremy Corbyn because of his party’s extremism or illegal harrassment of Jews – the British were made to do it by Israeli spies:
Academia and campus
Weep for the pro-Israel Jewish student in Ireland. This is an image from the walls of Dublin Trinity campus during their campaign to adopt a boycott against Israel. It reads ‘there were no gas chambers‘:
Pro-Israel students have even been assaulted whilst putting on a ‘kosher bake sale’! Ireland has its anti-Zionist academics, of course. Given the atmosphere in Ireland it should come as no shock to learn that several signed the letter in support of David Miller. The report takes a closer look at some of their unacceptable activity.
On the street in Ireland
The worst cases of antisemitism came from those who turn up to protest against the Jewish state on the streets of Ireland. The people captured in the report are not bystanders – they are the core of anti-Israel activism. They stand behind the street stalls, turn up to hand out leaflets, create the local solidarity groups and shout loudest at the demos.
Take Elizabeth Coleman as an example. A key face of Kildare’s anti-Israel activism:
Here she is bragging that she got the (very anti-Israel) Irish Politician Calre Daly TD to pose questions in the Dail for the Justice Minister at that time – the last elected Jewish political figure in Ireland (before he was hounded out) – Alan Shatter:
And here is Coleman in a different post telling all her friends that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are real – and that the Times only ‘debunked them’ because it was ‘Jewish owned’:
And finally, here is Coleman out on the streets of Ireland just a few months ago – smiling with the Palestinian flag. I am sure as she does this she is also pretending it is all about human rights:
One more example. This is an image from an anti-Israel demonstration . The woman on the right is Zoe Lawlor, a key player with the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Academics for Palestine and Gaza Action. Zoe Lawlor never sees antisemitism anywhere. She feels so strongly on the matter than she often writes to the press. The guy to the left with the microphone is Saed Laham, who the IPSC also know very well: The image is from an IPSC event in Limerick:
I have no idea what messages Saed Laham was spinning to those listening in Limerick, but this is what he really thinks:
Over time Laham probably understood that calling on people to kill Jews is perhaps a little bit too blatant – so he revised it a little. By 2015 he just wanted to kill the ‘Zionists’:
There are probably people in Ireland that will argue that this is an outrageous comment, but still ‘anti-Zionism’, not ‘antisemitism’. The switch is so easy – just cross out the word ‘Jew’ and replace it with ‘Zionist’. That is the pathetic argument they all hide behind. Laham is far from the only antisemite with whom Zoe Lawlor hangs out – but that is all detailed in the report.
From Dublin to Galway and down to Waterford this is what I found on Ireland’s streets – everywhere. Hard-core antisemitism wrapped up in a Palestinian flag. You have to read the ‘On the Streets’ section of the report to believe how bad it is.
The blindness of Fatin Al Tamimi
The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is the largest anti-Israel group in Ireland and is led today by Fatin Al Tamimi. She calls herself an anti-racist, yet almost every time she tags someone in a post from a demonstration it turns out that they share rabid antisemitism. It doesn’t happen once or twice, but again and again and again. These are not passers-by, these are people that the Chair of the IPSC knows well enough to name and tag.
Al Tamimi has tagged EL Rayes on countless occasions – this is one example from a demonstration in Dublin:And this is some of what Reem B El Rayes has to say:
This is the translation:
‘I repeat and say damn you Hitler you should have finished on all the Jews and brought us comfort.’
The key problem in Ireland is that there is no real fight-back. Many politicians, journalists and celebrities have completely lost their moral compass. You have to be blind not to see the antisemitism that lurks in almost every room.
I provide this last example here because I feel it sums up the entire problem in a single post. It is about a Jewish Minister in Ireland and simply says ‘throw the Jew down the well’ – which given what is in the report seems to be pretty much what Ireland is doing:
Tom Coughlan who posted that is not a bystander either. Where the Palestinian flag is raised in Ireland – antisemitism is helping to hold it aloft:
And as you will see in the report, this was hardly the worst thing Coughlan posted.
Given the level of antisemitism uncovered by this report, Ireland should adopt the IHRA definition as soon as possible. It urgently needs to embark on a massive educational drive to even begin to undo the damage.
The full report with the whole horrible story can be downloaded here.
{Reposted from the author’s website}