Critical, not antisemitic

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has openly criticised Dublin’s Lord Mayor, Micheál Mac Donncha, for attending a conference organised by the Palestinian Authority in the city of Ramallah on the West Bank.

He said Mr Mac Donncha “should be ashamed of himself for attending an anti-Israel conference in Ramallah”. Out of all the other international participants, Mr Netanyahu singled him out for censure.

Mr Mac Donncha can hardly be surprised, as he was an enthusiastic supporter on Monday of a Dublin City Council resolution that called on the Government to expel the Israeli ambassador over the recent killings of Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s foreign ministry denounced the resolution as “lowbrow anti-semitism”.

The Israeli government has every reason to take exception to that resolution, even though it knows there is no chance of an Irish Government heeding it.

But to express criticism of Israeli military policy as an example of anti-Semitism is inaccurate, unfair, and unworthy of the people of Israel.