Irish anti-Semitism

Only one person gave a counter-speech: Finn Azaz (r.), here in the game against Armenia in 2025, spoke out against the Israel boycott in the Irish national team.

“Stop the Game” was the name of the campaign. The organization Irish Sport for Palestine put pressure on the Irish Football Association to cancel the Nations League matches between the Republic and Israel. More than 160 Irish athletes had signed an open letter calling for a boycott.

In the end, the campaign was at least partially successful. Due to fears of street protests, the game kicked off in Debrecen, Hungary, at the end of September. The Irish won 3-0 in front of empty stands.

However, the Irish national players did not want to follow the call for a boycott. Except for one player: Gavin Bazunu, regular goalkeeper for the Irish national team, son of a Nigerian father and an Irish mother. Another player was part of the squad, but was out of the question for national coach Heimir Hallgrímsson: Midfielder Finn Azaz from Southampton FC lacked fitness for this game. But what was meant was not physical fitness, Hallgrímsson said: "He is in a different situation than the other players in our squad..."

A debate about left-wing anti-Semitism and uncritical sympathies for Palestinian resistance organizations is almost non-existent in the Republic of Ireland.

Finn Azaz was born in London, but his father comes from Cork, Ireland, and his mother from Israel. The grandmother served as a general in the Israeli army, the grandfather was the sculptor Nehemia Azaz, who was born in Berlin in 1923 and who emigrated to the then British Mandate of Palestine at a young age. Finn Azaz was therefore able to choose between the national teams of England, Ireland and Israel. The Irish were awarded the contract, for whom he has appeared 15 times so far. When the national players discussed a boycott for hours, it was Azaz who gave the most emotional counter-speech.

In no other country in Western Europe is the “pro-Palestinian” movement anywhere near as strong as in Ireland. In the last election campaign, all major parties advocated boycott measures against Israel. There was also agreement on the assessment of Israel's actions in Gaza: Israel was accused of genocide.

A debate about left-wing anti-Semitism and uncritical sympathies for Palestinian resistance organizations is almost non-existent in the Republic of Ireland. Controversy is only discussed in Northern Ireland, but in a rather twisted form: the flag of Palestine flies in the Catholic-Republican districts of Belfast, and the flag of Israel in the Protestant-Loyalist districts.

Is this why Ireland is the most anti-Semitic country in Western Europe? It's not that simple. The republican movement, i.e. the all-Ireland, left-wing populist Sinn Fein and the now disbanded IRA, also have an extremely heterogeneous history here.

The social revolutionary Michael Davitt (1846–1906) is one of two patrons of Celtic Glasgow, historically the club of Irish immigrants in Scotland. In recent years, left-wing Celtic fans have repeatedly crossed the line into anti-Semitism with their criticism of Israel. Davitt, however, sympathized with Zionism. In 1903 he published the book "Within the Pale: The True Story of Anti-Semitic Persecutions in Russia." The US media empire Hearst had sent Davitt to Kishinev (today's Chișinău in Moldova) in the Russian Empire to report on a pogrom in which 49 Jews were murdered and scores of Jewish women were raped around Easter 1903 - incited by priests shouting "Kill the Jews."

In 1921, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog was appointed Ireland's first chief rabbi. From 1915 to 1919 he worked as a rabbi in Belfast. Herzog's term as chief rabbi lasted until 1936. He then became Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and later of the State of Israel.

Herzog spoke fluent Irish and was on the side of Sinn Féin and the IRA during the War of Independence, which is why Herzog was also called “the Sinn Féin rabbi”. He maintained good relations with Prime Minister Éamon de Valera, who consulted him in drafting the new Irish constitution in 1937. When Herzog emigrated to Palestine, a cross-party farewell party was held at the Mansion House in Dublin. He was not only a sympathizer of the IRA, but also of the Zionist Irgun, who fought for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine and against British mandate rule.

At that time, Irish republicanism and Jewish Zionism still went hand in hand. Both had the same enemy, British imperialism. According to Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish nationalism and Zionism were often viewed as "parallel movements, characterized by diaspora, historical trauma, cultural revival and resistance to British rule."

Nevertheless, the Catholic country was never free from anti-Semitism. In 1946, the head of the Ministry of Justice, Thomas Coyne, published a memorandum in which he spoke out against allowing ten Jewish refugee families (about 40 people) into the country. Although there are only 3,907 people of Jewish faith living in Ireland, there is still "a very strong anti-Semitic mood" throughout the country, which can be attributed to "the fact that the Jews have remained an independent community within society and have not allowed themselves to be assimilated, and to the fact that they seem to have disproportionate wealth and influence in relation to their number."

The Six-Day War of 1967 also marked a turning point in Ireland. However, there were clear differences to Germany. Firstly, there was Ireland's past as a British colony, secondly, the Shoah was a distant event and thirdly, there was a strong movement in Northern Ireland against British imperialism and its governor in the province. The militant wing of the movement saw itself as part of an anti-imperialist international with the PLO and the South African ANC as allies.

But anti-imperialism was not the only content of this coalition. What was more important was the common fight against “settler colonialism”. The conflicts between the white apartheid regime and the black majority in South Africa, between the Palestinians and the State of Israel, and between Catholics/Nationalists and Protestants/Unionists in Northern Ireland were viewed as related.

Back to the present: After the game in Debrecen, Heimir Hallgrímsson praised Finn Azaz highly: "For me, he is probably one of the people I admire most at the moment when it comes to how he behaved in this whole situation." And further: "I don't have the words to describe how much respect he enjoys within this group of players."

Some Irish commentators are of the opinion (...) that the Irish are simply a people who, because of their history, are highly sensitive to injustice.

As a coach, it was difficult for him “to take on a leadership role at this time. You have to respect all points of view. We all come from different backgrounds, we all come from different cultures, we even have different religions." Looking back, he asks himself: "Did I do everything wrong as the leader of this group?" It's one thing to "have an opinion, and I expressed my opinion about the situation publicly." But he probably said too much, "because it is one thing to have a personal opinion and another to be the leader of a group."

That sounded a bit like an apology, because before the game the coach had gone out on a limb: “We're not playing with genocide, we're playing against genocide. We are playing against Israel, we are not playing with Israel." Now the Icelander explained that he had been "drawn into a political context," but that he was "not an expert in politics."

According to the coach, Finn Azaz is in a delicate situation: “He wants to be part of the Republic of Ireland national team. He wants to be part of this squad. But it's difficult for him. And you can understand that given his background." In fact, Azaz is probably thinking about withdrawing from the Irish selection.

Many Irish commentators believe that solidarity with the Palestinians and criticism of Israel come from the same source as the rejection of anti-Semitism. The Irish are simply a people who, due to their history, are highly sensitive to injustice. That may be true, but even in Ireland it does not prevent anti-Semitism from sometimes being more than just a silent companion to criticism of Israel.

Irish journalist Andy Pollack's father was a Czech Jew who came to Ireland as a political refugee in 1948. Pollack's mother was a Presbyterian Irishwoman from Ulster. Andy Pollack regularly stood behind a banner of Grandfathers for Justice for Palestine, a subgroup of Grandfathers against Racism, to protest US support for the war in Gaza outside the US Embassy in Dublin.

However, he found the following incident disturbing: In Dublin, city councilors had tried to rename a small park in the Rathgar district named after Chaim Herzog - the Belfast-born, Dublin-raised son of the Chief Rabbi of Ireland and President of Israel from 1983 to 1993. The debate was sparked by Sinn Féin councilor Kourtney Kenny, who requested that the park be named after a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed by Israeli forces along with six of her relatives.

Ireland's Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder protested: "Removing the name 'Duke' from the park would be a shameful erasure of Irish Jewish history and would send a painful message of isolation to a minority already experiencing increasing hostilities."

Prime Minister Micheál Martin called for the proposal to be withdrawn. A renaming would "erase the distinctive and rich contribution of the Jewish communities to Irish life over many decades, including their real involvement in the Irish War of Independence and in the building of the young state." It would amount to “a denial of our history” and would undoubtedly be viewed as anti-Semitic.

In Andy Pollack's view, the city councilors had ventured into dangerous territory: "Removing Jewish names from signs, monuments and storefronts was one of the things the Nazis did when they came to power in Germany."