Richard Boyd Barrett: Holocaust Memory and IHRA Debate

All my active political life I've been campaigning against anti-Semitism and racism and campaigning to remind people of the horrors of the Holocaust. When David Irving, the Nazi apologist, came to this country to try and deny a tour of meetings, to deny that the Holocaust ever happened, I was the organiser of the protests against it. I arranged for Jewish Auschwitz survivors to tour this country, to speak on national television, to speak about the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish people. But it is precisely because we must remember the horror that the Holocaust was, and say never again, that we must not put any impediment in the way of calling out other instances of dehumanisation, racism, apartheid and genocide, particularly when those guilty of genocidal crimes, as Israel is now, and in the DOC, in the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice, for genocide, for crimes against humanity, is using the memory of the Holocaust to legitimise its crimes against the Palestinians. And in that context, the adoption by your Government, without any notification of the IHRA definition, which you know is controversial, and which says for example that it is anti-Semitic to describe the Israeli state project as a racist state project. It says it, in the guidelines. Many, many Jewish Holocaust survivors have condemned that definition because it is loaded in favour of the State of Israel. And yet you decide to adopt it without any proper debate about the context. Deputy O'Marku is not here, so we will go straight to the Taoiseach responses. Deputy O'Marku said that first of all, I appreciate the comments made by Deputy Daley. We can never forget the exceptionalism of the Holocaust, and it is important that we mark it, and that's why I was determined as a Taoiseach to visit Auschwitz in terms of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In particular to hear, probably the last occasion, where we may hear the voices of actual surviving members. And I think, in terms of the retaining the right to criticise Israel, that it will be retained. There is nothing in the actual guidelines. There was a clause explaining – sorry, I can't definitely, would you stop? I have never interrupted you. Would you keep on interrupting? Even though we finished a sentence through the Chair. But there is not in the guidelines themselves. There were explanatory clauses. We made it very clear that we retained the right to criticise Israel. And the fact of the matter is, fellow like-minded EU member states to Ireland have signed the IHRA guidelines a long time ago. Spain and others, Slovenia, did that impair their capacity to criticise Israel? They joined with us in terms of the recognition of the Palestinian state, for example. And so on. So it doesn't stack up. And also the American guidelines which we signed, in my view, are important. Because there are attempts out there to portray us now as anti-Semitic. That needs to be made head on. We're not. The government isn't. The Iraqis isn't. And we have to be assertive in articulating, unambiguously, our position in relation to anti-Semitism. And whether we like it or not, I've met with the Jewish community in Dublin. And I understand, obviously, the war on Gaza, the horrendous attacks on Gaza and so on, has created an atmosphere in Ireland. Many of the Jewish community do not feel comfortable. Many of the Jewish community do not feel comfortable in terms of the atmosphere out there at the moment, in terms of them going about their daily lives, more worryingly about them being comfortable with outward manifestations of the fact that they are Jewish. We have to be alert to that. We have to deal with that in our schools to make sure that's not a factor for the Czechos. Many people within our Jewish community have different views, as you correctly point out. Some do not support what Prime Minister Netanyahu is doing. But we cannot conflate criticism of Israel and what Israel is doing or blame either what the government of Israel is doing with our Jewish community here or elsewhere across Europe and so on. And that's important because historically we had a very good tradition in this country. The 1937 constitution in particular provided for a protection for a Jewish community in reference. And then my own city of Cork, you know, in our own party, founding members of our party were members of the Jewish community. Robert Briscoe wrote a great book about For the Life of Me, detailing his role in travelling the country and forming branches of Fianna Fáil, a common Fianna Fáil. His son Deputy Ben Briscoe sat in this house. Both were Lord Mayors of Dublin. Lord Mayor of Cork Gerald Goldberg was a member of our own party. And like was the Reverend Taylor with the Irish Labour Party, had a very distinguished career here in terms of legislation, equality legislation in particular. So there is an honourable, very positive Jewish tradition in Ireland. And I think that's something we must protect. It's a small community and that's the context. Deputy Bachig, on the hate speech legislation, that act was amended last year. We just went ahead with the penalty side of it. There was a lot of opposition resistance in the light of what's going on in social media. And I felt that was regrettable in my view. But the European directors are clear in that. And there probably will be, I think we, what happened in terms of the legislation last year was to facilitate higher penalties for those convicted of hate speech. And the issues in terms of, the broader, you know, the issue of the Holocaust remembrance, which is an excellently organised, has been done through the years. It has always been free of controversy. And I would hope we can get back to that situation and engage with the Jewish community in Ireland in terms of how we properly remember the Holocaust. And I think our schools, by and large, have been strong in that as well. Primary schools and second level schools down through the years. And the impact on Europe, it's interesting, and Deputy Bob Barrett will reference other countries' attitudes. I mean, Germany has a completely different perspective in the Middle East because of the Holocaust, it seems to me. And it, I think, was their former Chancellor says they see it as their role, the recent data of the German government is to protect Israel. That's historically how they see it. It's completely different to the atmosphere in Ireland and the views in Ireland and how Ireland looks at things. We work, we engage to find change perspectives. And our focus has been on ending the war in Gaza and has been on demanding a comprehensive surge in humanitarian aid. And then working on the Arab peace initiative to get peace in Gaza and then to guarantee security for Israel and to get the hostages released. And to get the hostages and, yeah, but Deputy, you attack Germany, you might have a, you know, respect to Whitney. You've never attacked Hamas. You've never condemned Hamas for October the 7th. So, I've invited you on a number of occasions to condemn the Hamas attack on October the 7th, and you've refused every single time. That kind of moral equivalence, I think, is reprehensible, to be honest, because what happened October the 7th was reprehensible. And, sorry, finished. Finished, okay, thank you. Thank you very much.