“Let us not forget that Ireland was at best neutral during World War II,” says Israel’s Foreign Minister.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slammed Irish president Mike Higgins for the second time in days, after the Irish leader falsely accused Israel of planning to usurp land from Egypt and establish settlements.
The exchange came as tensions between Israel and Ireland continue to worsen, with Sa’ar recently closing the Jewish State’s embassy in Dublin due to the country’s “extreme anti-Israel” stance.
Sa’ar said that Higgins and others in the Irish government are “encouraging antisemitism” via the “delegitimization and dehumanization of Israel.”
On Tuesday, Higgins responded by claiming that Sa’ar’s comments are intended to serve as a distraction from Israel’s alleged violations of international law.
“It is a very serious business to actually brand a people because in fact they disagree with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, who is in breach of so many bits of international law, and who has beached the sovereignty of three of his neighbors, in relation to Lebanon, Syria, and would like in fact actually to have a settlement into Egypt,” Higgins said.
Sa’ar didn’t hold back when responding to the latest accusations from the Irish president.
“Once an antisemitic liar — always an antisemitic liar,” Sa’ar said of Higgins in an English-language statement.
“From Lebanese territory, Israel’s sovereignty was breached for over a year,” the statement continued. “For no reason and unprovoked, Hezbollah joined Hamas on October 8th [2023] and since then fired tens of thousands of missiles, rockets and drones at Israeli citizens and communities. Israel did what any country would — it defended itself against a brutal aggressor.”
Higgins’ claim of Israeli designs on Egyptian territory are nonsensical, Sa’ar stressed.
He “invented the claim that Israel seeks to form settlements there. In the context of our peace agreement with Egypt, Israel withdrew from a huge area — all of the Sinai desert, and uprooted all of its communities there. This peace agreement has been maintained since 1979.”
Sa’ar concluded by noting that Ireland had not joined the Allies in fighting Nazi Germany.
“Let us not forget that Ireland was at best neutral during World War II,” he said.
“At that time, the free world was fighting Hitler’s axis while Ireland sat on the side and did nothing.”
Image - WIN/Irish President Michael Higgins. (Shutterstock)