Ó Snodaigh stands over Nazi remarks

SINN FÉIN’S justice spokesman has refused to apologise for comments made about the Israeli ambassador and has reiterated his comparison of the diplomat’s remarks to those of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebells.

Pressure mounted on Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD to withdraw controversial comments he made at an Oireachtas committee this week, which were also aimed at the Dáil’s only Jewish TD, Alan Shatter.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny rounded on Mr Ó Snodaigh for making the comments about his party’s deputy.

But Mr Ó Snodaigh said he still believed the defence by ambassador Zion Evrony and Alan Shatter of Israel’s offensive in Gaza was comparable to Nazi propaganda.

“No, I don’t think that I have anything to apologise for. I’m making a point that what I heard at the committee yesterday [Tuesday] was propaganda on a scale similar to that of Dr Goebells.

“I stand [over them], considering what has been happening in Gaza during the last three weeks and people’s attempts to justify the unjustifiable and the continuous slaughter of people in the Gaza Strip which has been likened to a concentration camp,” he told RTÉ.

Mr Ó Snodaigh visited Gaza last November along with Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews, who has called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador from Ireland.

Mr Ó Snodaigh had hit out at Evrony and fellow TD Mr Shatter at the committee during an appearance of the Palestinian and Israeli representatives: “Goebbels would have been proud of the twisted logic and half- truths to which they have exposed this committee. I do not say that lightly. They are trying to justify the unjustifiable, which is what Goebbels and his colleagues tried to do during the Holocaust.”

Enda Kenny made it clear yesterday he wanted Mr Ó Snodaigh to retract what he had said about his fellow Fine Gael colleague. “I think to compare Deputy Alan Shatter to a member of the Nazi regime is both despicable and beneath any deputy in the Oireachtas.

[Mr Ó Snodaigh’s] party, mind you, defended the Enniskillen bombing where innocent lives were lost, this is not the kind of democracy that we want to see.

“Deputy Shatter is a politician of conviction, he is a member of his Jewish faith, he is perfectly entitled to his opinions and he has expressed those with some conviction.”

European Affairs Minister Dick Roche also said the comments had been “sickening and calculated to offend”.