Sinn Féin politician compares senior Jews to Goebbels

A senior Sinn Féin politician today compared Ireland’s only Jewish TD and the Israeli ambassador to a notorious Nazi propagandist.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh launched the outspoken attack on the pair during a parliamentary committee hearing into the conflict in Gaza.

The Sinn Féin justice, equality and international affairs spokesman accused Ambassador Zion Evrony and Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter of indefensible attempts to justify the Israeli bombing campaign.

And, in a remarkable outburst, he likened their defence of the invasion to the arguments of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

“Goebbels would have been proud of the twisted logic and half-truths,” he said.

Ambassador Evrony branded the remarks despicable and demanded an apology.

“What I think overshadows the discussion was this despicable analogy of the deputy of Sinn Féin,” the ambassador said.

“I think that... (there is a need) for members here to educate themselves and for this distinguished deputy to apologise.”

Mr Evrony was called before the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee hearing with Ireland’s most senior Palestinian representative Hikmat Ajjuri, to answer questions about the continuing violence.

Mr Evrony and Mr Shatter claimed the conflict would not have occurred if Hamas had not indiscriminately fired rockets at Israeli civilians.

The ambassador hit out at comments from some committee members criticising the proportionality of the Israeli response, claiming they had been spouting misinformation about Jewish history.

It is the second time the notorious Goebbels has been used as a slight against a Fine Gael TD in Leinster House.

Former justice minister Michael McDowell used the Nazi slur against the party’s mild-mannered deputy leader Richard Bruton in 2006 in a row over Garda numbers.