A vote to remove sixth Israeli President Chaim Herzog’s name from a public park was taken off of Dublin City Council’s agenda, after sparking an uproar in the Irish Jewish community, Jerusalem and Washington over the weekend. 

Herzog, father of current Israeli President Isaac Herzog, was born in Belfast and grew up in Dublin, and was the son of Ireland’s Chief Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, who later became Israel’s first chief rabbi. Chaim Herzog fought in the British Army in World War II, taking part in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, and was the head of IDF intelligence and Israeli ambassador to the U.N. — famously tearing up its “Zionism is racism” resolution — before serving as president in 1983-1993.

The park in Dublin was named after Herzog in 1995, to coincide with the 3,000th anniversary of Jerusalem’s establishment. It is adjacent to Ireland’s only Jewish school and close to major Orthodox and Progressive synagogues.

The plan to remove Herzog’s name came after a campaign to replace it with the name of Hind Rajab, a Palestinian girl killed during the Gaza war. Another reported proposal was to name the park “Free Palestine.” 

One member of the Dublin City Council Commemorations and Naming committee, Conor Reddy, wrote a post on X on Oct. 7, 2023 sharing a photo of a bulldozer from Gaza tearing down a barrier with Israel and added the text: “Tear down the fences, demolish the walls.” In another post that day, he said, “Resistance is heroic.” The following day, he wrote on X that the massive Hamas terrorist attacks “should be celebrated and supported … [and] should be embraced by everyone who values justice … It is beautiful.” 

The entire naming committee, except for one member, voted last week in favor of excising Herzog’s name, and to initiate a consultation process to select a new name. 

The next step would have been for the full Dublin City Council to vote on the name removal, which was scheduled for Monday. However, Dublin City Council Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare announced on Sunday that the vote would be withdrawn because the council’s naming committee did not follow the proper procedure. In addition, Dublin Mayor Ray McAdam said the committee had not provided the council with a sufficiently detailed report to make an informed decision. 

The change to the council’s agenda came after leading figures in the Irish government, as well as in Jerusalem and Washington, expressed opposition to renaming the park.

Though Ireland’s national government has taken the most anti-Israel stance in Europe since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin called on Sunday for the motion to rename Herzog Park to be withdrawn. 

“The proposal would erase the distinctive and rich contribution to Irish life of the Jewish community over many decades … The proposal is a denial of our history and will, without any doubt, be seen as antisemitic,” he said in a statement. 

Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee noted that Herzog “is an important figure for many people, particularly for members of Ireland’s Jewish community. The government has been openly critical of the policies and actions of the government of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank … Renaming a Dublin park in this way — to remove the name of an Irish Jewish man — has nothing to do with this and has no place in our inclusive republic. … I urge Dublin City Councillors to vote against it.”

Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Simon Harris said he agreed with McEntee and called the proposal “offensive.” Minister for European Affairs and Defense Thomas Byrne said that Herzog’s “story is an Irish story,” calling for the council to drop the proposal. 

Ireland is also pulling its “Occupied Territories Bill” to boycott Israeli products from the West Bank in light of a “changed political climate” as a result of the ceasefire in Gaza, the Irish Mail on Sunday reported. The legislation faced legal challenges due to its violation of European Union trade rules, and, as several members of Congress pointed out, could run afoul of U.S. states’ laws penalizing those who boycott Israel and damage relations between Washington and Dublin. 

Former Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter told Jewish Insider that the government responses to the proposed Herzog Park name change, which came about 24 hours after the announcement from Dublin City Council, arose from concern in the government “about the bad international publicity. … I think they’re a little freaked by all the international condemnation,” much of which came from Jerusalem and Washington. 

The city council is independent and does not have to abide by the national government’s direction on naming matters, and parties to the left of the current government have a majority on the council. As such, removing Herzog’s name may have had majority support despite government party leaders’ opposition.

Reddy posted on X that the vote “is being pulled from the agenda after bad faith smears from Zionists [and] Americans. There is nothing antisemitic about removing the name [and] there was nothing wrong with the procedure that brought us to this point! Shocking.” 

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office released a statement on Saturday that the name change would “harm the legacy of the sixth President of the State of Israel, the late Chaim Herzog, as well as harming the unique expression of the historical connection between the Irish and Jewish peoples. … Removing the Herzog name, if it happens, would be a shameful and disgraceful move. We hope that the legacy of a figure at the forefront of establishing the relations between Israel and Ireland, and the fight against antisemitism and tyranny, will still get the respect it deserves today.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog, another one of Chaim Herzog’s sons, called the proposed name change “sad,” and said it was “painful to see how Ireland, once home to a proud, thriving Jewish community, has become the scene of raging antisemitism. Ireland is now one of the most virulent anti-Israel countries in Europe, blurring the line between criticizing Israeli policies and questioning Israel’s right to exist.” He called on Jewish organizations in the U.S. and worldwide to speak up in “denouncing this shame.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that the proposed name change showed that “there is no decision more accurate and just than my decision to close our embassy in Dublin,” adding that the city “has become the capital of antisemitism in the world.”

“The Dublin Municipality has decided to remove the name of Chaim Herzog … What cannot be removed is the disgrace of the Irish antisemitic and anti-Israeli obsession,” Sa’ar added.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) posted on X: “When you think it couldn’t get worse in Ireland regarding animosity toward Israel and the Jewish people, it just did. … I don’t know what the people of Dublin are trying to say, but this is what I hear: A complete turning upside down of history when it comes to the Jewish people and the state of Israel. Modern Ireland … unfortunately has become a cesspool of antisemitism.”

Graham later wrote that he was “glad to hear efforts to rename Herzog Park in Dublin have been rejected.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the proposal “an incredible insult to the Herzog family whose roots are deep in Ireland. Let’s hope decent Irish people stop this madness!” 

After the motion was withdrawn, Huckabee wrote that “Ireland still has rational and thoughtful people … Hopefully this ends a very targeted form of  bigotry pushed by a few people who should be ashamed of themselves.” 

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland stated that the motion “sends a hurtful and isolating message to a small minority community that has contributed to Ireland for centuries. We call on Dublin City Councillors to reject this motion. The removal of the Herzog name from this park would be widely understood as an attempt to erase our Irish Jewish history.” 

Shatter, a lifelong Dublin resident who had a 14-year national political career, lamented on X that “Ireland’s politics … has become systematically antisemitic.” 

Following the proposal’s withdrawal, Shatter said that “Dublin City Council’s Mayor should publicly apologize to the Jewish community for the stress [and] hurt caused [and] also apologize to the Herzog family.” 

“Until the government adopts a more balanced approach to the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, demands Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups end their violence and like [the Provisional Irish Republican Army] decommission their arms and abandons its inflammatory rhetoric, antisemitism in Ireland will continue to escalate and there will be further egregious, shameful examples,” Shatter wrote.

If Dublin eventually moves to change Herzog Park’s name, Shatter told JI that there may be legal recourse against it, should the council move to do so. 

“In my analysis, the city council has violated its legal obligations, both international and domestic,” he said. “They failed to engage in any consultative process with the Jewish community in Dublin, failed to communicate its intentions to the Herzog family and violated its own development plan.”

The plan in question requires the city to “consider cultural and minority sensitivities.”

In addition, as a member of the European Union, Ireland is meant to protect minority cultural rights, he noted.

In 2014, a plaque marking Chaim Herzog’s birthplace in Belfast was removed following multiple occurrences of vandalism and amid concern for the safety of the building’s staff and nearby residents.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris urged the U.S. to end the war in Gaza at the American Embassy in Dublin’s Fourth of July party, days after the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), warned that the U.S. may reconsider its economic ties with “antisemitic” Ireland.

Harris, who is also Ireland’s deputy prime minister and defense minister, began his speech by focusing on the close relationship between the U.S. and Ireland, according to Dublin-based The Journal, before pivoting to the war in Gaza. 

Harris said at the event on Thursday that his country “want[s] the bombs to stop, the killing to stop … because the cry of a child is the same in any language. It compels us to provide comfort and protection from harm.”

“As human beings in positions of power, we can no longer bear the heartbreaking cries of the children of the Middle East,” Harris added. “And I join, I know, with everyone here in urging everybody involved to support and engage in efforts underway to reach agreement on a new ceasefire and hostage release agreement, to redouble those efforts and to end the violence once and for all.”

U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Ed Walsh did not applaud the remarks, The Journal reported.

Harris has previously called Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza a “genocide.” 

Earlier last week, Risch posted on X that “Ireland, while often a valuable U.S. partner, is on a hateful, antisemitic path that will only lead to self-inflicted economic suffering.” The post came after Harris introduced legislation to ban trade with Israelis operating in the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem. 

Harris said that Ireland was “the first country in Europe to bring forward legislation to ban trade with the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Ireland is speaking up and speaking out against the genocidal activity in Gaza. Every country must pull every lever at its disposal.” 

Risch warned on X that “if this legislation is implemented, America will have to seriously reconsider its deep and ongoing economic ties. We will always stand up to blatant antisemitism.”

The legislation is also known as the PIGS bill, an acronym for “Prohibition of Importation of Goods,” but is also an animal frequently used in antisemitic attacks and references.  

A day later, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said that Dublin must take into consideration the anti-boycott laws and executive orders in most U.S. states. 

“We don’t want any companies or multinationals in Ireland inadvertently being caught up in this,” Martin reportedly said. “The object of the exercise here is to put pressure on Israel, not to disadvantage Ireland duly, and that’s a factor.” 

Martin argued that his country is “just [targeting] in the Occupied Territories, not Israel as a country,” despite Ireland’s intense criticism and emphasis on Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack. 

In discussions of the bill in the Irish parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, the Foreign Ministry reported that trade in goods between Israeli settlements and Ireland in 2024 amounted to 214,000 Euros ($252,000), and that there had been zero trade in services between the countries in 2023. One lawmaker said that even “if the value was only €10, the symbolic value of the legislation is still enormous.” 

Earlier this year, Ireland swore in a more moderate governing coalition than the country has had in previous years, and The Irish Mail on Sunday reported that the “Israeli trade ban will be dropped to appease [President Donald] Trump … The bill is now unlikely to ever make the statute books amid deepening fears it will damage Ireland’s corporate and diplomatic relations with the U.S.” 

Versions of the bill have been on Ireland’s political agenda at least since 2018, but never passed, in part because of concerns that its implementation would violate European Union trade regulations. Israel has a free-trade agreement with the EU, which Ireland has called to reconsider.

The American Jewish Committee has called Ireland “one of the most problematic countries in Europe” when it comes to antisemitism and demonization of Israel, and said the situation for Jews in the country has significantly worsened since the Oct. 7 attacks, “posing serious risks.”

The AJC also found an increase in physical harassment of Jews, bullying and hostility on campuses and in workplaces in Ireland. The organization IMPACT-se, which analyzes textbooks, found last year that Irish school textbooks minimize the Holocaust and include antisemitic stereotypes and one-sided depictions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.