Irish President Michael D. Higgins said that Israeli accusations of deep-rooted Irish antisemitism were “deep slander” and accused Israel of seeking to build settlements in Egypt in statements to the press on Tuesday.
Higgins’s statements come after the Israeli Foreign Ministry closed the embassy in Ireland because of “actions and antisemitic rhetoric used by Ireland against Israel.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in a Sunday statement that went with the announcement that he believes these actions delegitimized and demonized the Jewish state. “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel,” he said.
Higgins told Irish media on Tuesday that he was deeply concerned about Sa’ar’s accusations, and felt as if they were intended to harm Ireland.
“I take it as very serious business to actually brand a people, because in fact they disagree with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who’s in breach of so many bits of international law and has breached the sovereignty of three of his neighbors in relation to Lebanon, Syria… and would in fact to have a settlement in Egypt,” Higgins said to Irish media, as seen in a video from RTE News on X/Twitter.
Once an antisemitic liar – always an antisemitic liar. Ireland’s President reached a new low, spewing lies that Israel “has breached the sovereignty of three of his neighbors, in relation to Lebanon, Syria and would like in fact to have a settlement in Egypt.”Let’s get the… https://t.co/cEbhqI4x17
— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) December 17, 2024
‘Gross defamation and slander’
“I think to suggest that because one criticizes Prime Minister Netanyahu, that one is is antisemitic, is such a gross defamation and slander,” Higgins continued. “I have to say that originally, when I accepted credentials, I put it down to lack of experience. But then I saw later that it was part of a pattern to damage Ireland.”
“Over the years I think it is the Irish psyche that we understand the words ‘dispossession’, ‘occupation’ and so on,” Higgins said, according to the Irish Times. “That’s why we stress the importance of international law and also particularly in relation to the rights obligations of those who are in occupation on what is occupied territory.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar responded on X/Twitter with “once an antisemitic liar – always an antisemitic liar.”
Sa’ar disputed Higgins’s claims about any Israeli occupation in Lebanon, instead pointing to Hezbollah’s assault on Israel after the October 7 massacre.
“Israel did what any country would – it defended itself against a brutal aggressor,” Sa’ar wrote.
In regards to Higgins’s statements on the IDF’s presence in Syria, the foreign minister wrote that after the fall of Bahar Assad’s regime, “armed groups entered the buffer zone and attacked UNDOF forces, in violation of the Disengagement Agreement from 1974. Israel temporarily entered a few limited points to prevent the threat of radical Islamists against its citizens and communities.”
As for Higgins’s statements regarding Israeli desire for a settlement, Sa’ar pointed to Israel’s withdrawal of the Sinai desert in 1979 as proof of peace with Egypt.
“Israel will not wait for another October 7th on any of its borders,” he stressed, further adding that Ireland remained neutral in World War Two.
“At that time, the free world was fighting Hitler’s axis while Ireland sat on the side and did nothing.”
Jesus Christ is King
