Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Ireland’s ambassador to Israel on Tuesday that Israel will keep “exposing the antisemitic nature of this government of Ireland,” after the envoy implied Sa’ar was weaponizing antisemitism for political purposes.

The exchange unfolded during an event for honorary consuls at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Ambassador Sonia McGuinness needled Sa’ar during a Q&A session that followed the minister’s speech, in which he mentioned the fight against the “scourge of antisemitism.”   

“Minister, I’m glad to hear you mention the scourge of antisemitism and what must be done about it. But I would have thought that it must be carefully managed and not used for political gain. Antisemitism is a scourge and must be countered, and therefore don’t you think facts are important?” asked McGuinness.

Sa’ar in reply suggested that her government had failed initially to confront a Dublin city council proposal to rename a park named for Chaim Herzog, an Irish Jew who later became a president of Israel, until Israel’s Foreign Ministry and current president called out the proposal as antisemitic.

”So tell me please why it was published on Friday, this antisemitic proposed decision, of the City Council of Dublin, and nothing happened until Saturday, when I attacked it, when the president of Israel attacked it?” said Sa’ar. “It’s because there’s nothing in your system right now that can defend you from that virus of antisemitism except of external pressure and exposing the antisemitic nature of this government of Ireland and other institutions, and we will continue to do that,” he continued, adding that “you cannot deceive the world.”

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin on Sunday criticized the proposal to rename the park, calling it “a denial of our history [that] will, without any doubt, be seen as antisemitic.” The previous day, Helen McEntee, Ireland’s minister of state at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, issued her own objections to the proposed name change.

On Monday, the City Council Executive asked the mayor to withdraw the document that had formed the basis for the renaming proposal, citing procedural issues.  

Sa’ar on Friday had warned that, unlike the park name, “What cannot be removed is the disgrace of the Irish antisemitic and anti-Israeli obsession.”

Sa’ar and other Israeli officials have accused Irish officials of antisemitism before.

Sa’ar said in December 2024 that “the Irish government is made up of antisemites and obsessive anti-Israelis,” after then Irish president Michael D. Higgins accused Israel falsely of planning “settlements in Egypt.”

The post Israeli FM: Irish government unable to fight ‘antisemitism virus’ appeared first on JNS.org.