Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will home in on one particular aspect of the programme for Government. On page 99, it states: "Give effect to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance ‘Working Definition of Antisemitism’". This is a programme for Government, large parts of which will not be delivered within the five years of this Government's term. The programme for Government had not even been ratified by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, never mind the new Government being elected by the Dáil, by the time the then Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs - now the Taoiseach - was out on 16 January announcing Ireland's endorsement of the non-legally binding Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism. Where did this come from? Who was pushing for it? The context is that almost every human rights organisation in the world from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch and numerous academics, including the person who wrote this definition, are critical of it and are saying that states should not sign up to it.

On the face of it, someone listening in might ask what the problem could possibly be with signing up to a definition of antisemitism. Of course, we need to combat the ongoing scourge of antisemitism but the problem, in particular, are the examples that go with that definition. Seven of the 11 examples are about criticising the state of Israel. The way this definition has been used has been to silence those who want to criticise Israeli policies. I will give some examples and the Minister of State can tell me whether I am being antisemitic. One of the examples is "Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor." The existence of the state of Israel is a racist endeavour. Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, proposed a Jewish state in Palestine as an "outpost of civilisation as opposed to barbarism". Israel's first Prime Minister wrote to his son in 1937 saying that Jewish settlers must expel Arabs and take their place. Israel deemed Palestinians who were expelled during the Nakba to be absentees without the right of return. Meanwhile, all Jewish people have the right to emigrate to Israel and become citizens. Palestinian absentee property was allocated to the Jewish National Fund explicitly reserving its land for Jewish lease only. The working definition of antisemitism also states that "Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" is antisemitism.

The President has been accused of antisemitism because he referenced the genocide in Gaza when giving his Holocaust Memorial speech. Israel's national state law stipulates in its first clause that actualisation of the right to national self-determination is unique to the Jewish people, similar to the first of the Nuremberg laws deeming citizenship a privilege exclusive to those with German blood.

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