Irish anti-Israel agitation is out of control

Just like other groups that tend to be consumed by hatred for Israel, Irish nationalists usually deny they are antisemitic. The most common defence is that they do not hate Jews or Israelis, but simply detest Israel’s government, which they accuse of genocide and colonialism.

This was already a flimsy excuse for an obsessively one-sided view of conflict in the Middle East. Any credibility it retained has been undermined further by the hysterical reaction to the Republic of Ireland’s upcoming international football matches against Israel. 

The countries are due to play in the Nations League in September, at a neutral venue. What has really caused the Irish to melt down, though, is the prospect of the Israeli team visiting Dublin in October. 

Ever since that fixture was announced, back in February, campaigners, fans and former players have directed a torrent of vitriol at Israel, in the hope that the Football Association of Ireland will cancel the game. 

Last week, the Republic’s friendly match against Qatar at the Aviva Stadium was disrupted, when supporters pelted the playing field with tennis balls. They were not protesting at their opponents’ dismal record on human rights, intolerance for homosexuality or exploitation of slave labour. Instead, the balls carried a demand to “Stop the Game” against Israel and an image of the Palestinian flag, which has become ubiquitous across much of the island. 

The demonstrators no doubt thought they were displaying the high-mindedness of the Irish people, but the incident most clearly showed a visceral disgust for everything Israeli. The language deployed about this issue in Ireland has moved way beyond legitimate criticism of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza. And the obsession with “crimes” against Palestine is not replicated for other humanitarian crises across the world. 

This instinctive loathing of Israel was best summed up by comments after the match from the football pundit and former Irish international Richie Sadlier, on the Republic’s national broadcaster, RTE. 

In a grave tone, he gestured around the deserted stadium and expressed what appeared to be revulsion for the symbols and people of the world’s only Jewish state. If the scheduled match went ahead, he said, “The Israeli flag is going to hang on that pole over there. The Israeli … anthem is going to be played on the speaker. Israeli fans potentially waving flags will be in those seats just there.” The Irish republic’s president, Catherine Connolly, he noted, might even have to shake hands with these people.

This would certainly be awkward for President Connolly, who told the BBC that Hamas was “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people”, and should not be excluded from running Palestine, despite its slaughter of innocent Jews on October 7. Anti-Israel bias must run in the family. Her sister, Dr Margaret Connolly, was one of twelve Irish citizens recently deported from Israel, after an “aid” flotilla heading for Gaza was intercepted by Israeli forces.

You do not have to examine the rhetoric on the Middle East in Ireland very deeply to find the real source of nationalists’ disgust for Israel and their supposed empathy for Palestine. The former international player James McClean, who once posted a picture of himself home-schooling his children in a balaclava, said recently, “If there is one country that should recognise oppression and the turmoil that brings then it’s Ireland.”

Ireland’s obsession with Israel and Palestine is powered by its own highly developed sense of victimhood and the hatred of Britishness that is the bedrock of its national identity. In Northern Ireland, the conflict can also provide an excuse to flaunt controversial symbols as a way of antagonising unionists, while denying any charges of sectarianism.

This weekend, the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), has scheduled a “Great March for Gaza”, through the predominantly unionist village of Scarva, in County Down. This event is due to take the same route as a D-Day commemoration and sponsored walk, organised by local groups. A similar IPSC march last year required riot police to be deployed, as marchers goaded residents.

The Palestinian flag, which is closely associated with Hamas, is now flown across the Republic and in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland. The idea that it could be divisive or controversial is met with delirious diatribes about genocide and dead children. Meanwhile, RTE recently declined to air the Eurovision song-contest, which for some time was practically a national obsession in Ireland, not because it was staged in Israel, but because the country was taking part.

The cost of questioning this groupthink, even by implication, can be high. While Sadlier, with his one senior cap, was lauded by fans for his dehumanising comments about Israelis, the Republic’s all-time leading goalscorer, Robbie Keane, has been abused for spending a season as the manager of Maccabi Tel Aviv. 

You can only expect the anti-Israeli viciousness to get worse as the Nations League approaches

This anti-Israeli derangement, of course, is not unique to the Irish. There are regular outbreaks across Europe, while it is now a feature on UK streets too, to the point that many British Jews no longer feel safe. In Ireland, a combination of brooding self-pity and vaulting self-righteousness gives its hatred of Israel a unique edge. 

There are good reasons to question the way that Netanyahu and his government have reacted to Hamas’s savagery, over the past two and a half years. In nationalist Ireland, though, there has been scarcely any recognition that Israel was wronged in the first place. Its hysterical mood seems only to be deepening, and you can only expect the anti-Israeli viciousness to get worse as the Nations League approaches.