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| Anti-Israel article angers Irish leaders
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An article questioning the right of Israel to exist, which was published in an Irish lifestyle magazine, has angered local Jewish leaders and attracted hundreds of letters of complaint.
The column by ex-parliamentarian Justin Keating, was featured in the November issue of The Dubliner magazine, which has a circulation of nearly 10,000.
In the article Keating said he believed that the claim that Jews have a right to create a state in Israel is built on lies; alarming the Israeli embassy in Dublin and the Irish chief rabbi.
“The Zionists have absolutely no right in what they call Israel, that they have built their state not beside but on top of the Palestinian people, and that there can be no peace as long as contemporary Israel retains its present form,” Keating wrote in the magazine.
As well as saying that many Jewish people of today are not direct descendants of the Jews of Abraham and that even if they are they have no right to a land where the Palestinians live, Keating even called into question the validity of the Balfour declaration - the document which outlined the British position that the Jews have a right to a homeland in Palestine.
“In law and in equity it has no validity,” Keating said.
Embassy anger
The Israeli Embassy in Dublin has written to the Dubliner demanding an apology over the article which it described as “claptrap”.
“I found it offensive and hurtful, while adding fuel to the fire of some Irish people’s wrong views on Israel and Jews,” said spokesman David Golding. “It was pure anti-Semitism because it questions our God and our religion.”
He added: “I am very angry and disappointed that an eminent Irish historian could produce such revisionist rubbish.”
Irish chief rabbi Dr Yaakov Pearlman spoke of his concern over the article.
Pearlamn told the Jewish Telegraph: “According to the biblical report, Abraham was 75-years-old when he received the voice of God Almighty informing him he was going to be leader of the great nation.
“God was not an invention but a discovery through Abraham’s own intellect. To say that he was an invention would be a desecration of the sanctity of our religion.”
Constant complaints
The article attracted widespread attention after it was featured on the media watchdog website honest reporting.
The website compared the Keating column to recent comments by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who called for Israel to be wiped
The honest reporting editor said the Irish column was “alluding to the same idea by former Irish Labor Minister Justin Keating while couched in less violent terms than Ahmadinejad.”
This prompted hundreds to people to write to the editor via the email address featured on the honest reporting site.
Editor Trevor White said he was worried about the ferocity of some of the emails which he described as “abusive and vulgar”.
Defending his decision to publish the column White said: “I deeply resent the charge that it [the article] is anti-Semitic - that is lazy and unfair. It is extraordinary people are so ignorant and offensive.
“It provokes debate, and open debate is one of things that distinguishes a democracy from dictatorship,” he added.
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