A proposal to rename the Dublin park, named after the former Israeli president Chaim Herzog, was conceded to be not “legally sound” by council management and has been shelved.
Herzog, who was the sixth president of Israel, was born in Belfast and raised in Dublin. The park was named after him in 1995.
On Monday night, Dublin City Council voted to send the issue of renaming the park in Rathgar, driven by outcry at Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, back to the relevant council committee.
Israel’s minister for foreign affairs Gideon Sa’ar. Photo: Getty
Today’s News in 90 – Tuesday, December 2
During an Israeli Foreign Ministry event held on Tuesday, Irish ambassador to Israel Sonya McGuinness posed a question to Gideon Sa’ar, the Israeli foreign minister.
In a video of the exchange shared on his X account, Mr Sa’ar said “Ireland is sick with the antisemitic virus”.
Ms McGuinness said: “Minister, I’m glad to hear you mention the scourge of antisemitism, 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?”
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In response, Mr Sa’ar described the proposed renaming of Herzog Park as an “antisemitic proposed decision” and said “nothing happened” until he and Isaac Herzog, the current president of Israel and the son of Chaim Herzog, “attacked the proposal”.
“Why? Why? Because you’re only responding. There is nothing in your system right now that can defend you from that virus of antisemitism, except external pressure, and exposing the antisemitic nature of this Government of Ireland and other institutions.”
At this point in the exchange, Ms McGuinness interrupts, twice telling Mr Sa’ar: “I’m afraid you’re ill-informed.”
He spoke over Mc McGuinness and continued, saying: “We will continue to do that, and we will continue to expose you, until you will understand that you cannot deceive the world.”
“You are ill-informed minister,” Ms McGuinness then repeated.
In a statement released prior to the withdrawal of the proposal to rename Herzog Park, Mr Sa’ar described Dublin as the “capital of antisemitism in the world”.
He said there is no decision “more accurate and just” than the one he made to close the Israeli embassy in Dublin shortly after he took up the office of foreign minister.
Following Mr Sa’ar’s claim that Ireland had used “antisemitic rhetoric” in December 2024, former president Michael D Higgins said it is “deep slander” to accuse the Irish people of being antisemitic for criticising the Israeli government.