In a nation frequently perceived as a stronghold of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas sentiment, filled with boycott campaigns against the world’s only Jewish state, establishing a pro-Israel student group on any campus marks a significant milestone.
Last week at Dublin City University (DCU), a turning point occurred as a group of Zionist students gathered for the inaugural meeting of the first Irish chapter of Students Supporting Israel (SSI).
Nearly a year ago, at a Magen David Adom Ireland event, I was inspired to seek opportunities to engage in pro-Israel advocacy in Ireland. Israel’s decision last December to close its embassy in Ireland pushed me into action.
Despite the current hostility, the ties between Israel and Ireland run deeper than today’s political climate suggests. President Herzog embodies the Israeli-Irish bond. He is entitled to an Irish passport because his father, former Israeli President Chaim Herzog, was born in Dublin. His grandfather, Rabbi Isaac Halevi Herzog, also served as Ireland’s Chief Rabbi between 1921 and 1936. Israel’s Prime Minister in the early 1990s, Yitzhak Shamir, was colloquially known as “Michael” after Michael Collins, Ireland’s own nationalist hero. In 1912, Irish writer Aodh de Blacam even wrote that “Israel represents Sinn Fein’s triumph,” referring to Ireland’s nationalist party.
Today, however, the landscape for Zionist advocacy in Ireland is daunting. Political rhetoric has plummeted to alarming lows, with Irish leaders comparing Israel’s actions to those of Nazi Germany and even seeking ties with Iran. Symbols of Hamas and Hezbollah are openly displayed on Irish streets unchallenged. Politicians have claimed that Israel is “intoxicated on the blood of Gazan children,” and school textbooks describe Auschwitz as a “prisoner of war” camp.
The pervasive antisemitic actions are most evident on our university campuses across Ireland. Last year, DCU’s Student Union prominently presented Palestinian flags in the central social area and amplified chants of “from the river to the sea.” Trinity College hosted a “non-Zionist Shabbat” during its Gaza encampments, and a BDS event on my campus featured the cousin of Hamas former leader Ismail Haniyeh as a speaker. The university president’s response was a tepid defense of free speech, ignoring Hamas’s status as an EU-proscribed terror organization and its genocidal ideology toward the Jewish people.
And yet, all is not lost. In this oppressive political climate, the recent formation of an unabashedly Zionist group at our university offers a defiant response to Ireland’s institutional hostility. SSI’s mission is to provide a clear and confident pro-Israel voice on college campuses and to support students in grassroots pro-Israel advocacy. SSI’s grassroots approach employs a bold and visible Zionist message aimed at educating and empowering students with facts to counter antisemitic slander and foster understanding.
The closure of the Israeli embassy may mark a diplomatic setback in relations between Israel and Ireland, but it has also ignited a fierce and unyielding resolve among Ireland’s pro-Israel advocates.
Far from surrendering, pro-Israel Irish activists and groups are rising up and confronting these challenges, while upholding the burning of the Zionist flame until Israel’s ambassador returns to Dublin.
The relentless slander of the Jewish state and the Jewish people in Ireland will be met with a response. We will fight to ensure that voices of hate and antisemitism do not prevail.
Jamie O Mahony is the founder and president of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) at Dublin City University.
This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Sacha Stawski.