President Higgins’ claim that Israel leaked his letter to the Iranian Government plays into “one of the oldest antisemitic tropes” around, Holocaust Awareness Ireland has said.
In July, President Higgins wrote to Tehran offering condolences following the sudden death of the Iranian President in a helicopter crash and described the country as having a “crucial role” in building peace in the Middle East.
The letter was criticised by some in the media as President Ebrahim Raisi was nicknamed by his detractors as ‘the Butcher of Tehran’ for his human rights record.
His fearsome reputation went back to the 1980s when he sat on the so-called 'Death Panel' of four Islamic judges who sentenced thousands of Iranian prisoners of conscience to their deaths during the purge of 1988.
When questioned about the letter yesterday at the United Nations in New York, President Higgins accused Israel of leaking its contents.
“It was circulated from the Israeli Embassy,” he said.
When asked how the Embassy could do that, he replied, “I have no idea, I have no idea and I’m afraid [the Ambassador] is not in residence at the moment.”
The Israeli Embassy described it as a “baseless accusation” that was also “highly inflammatory” and “potentially slanderous”.
On July 26th, the Iranian Embassy published an acknowledgment of the letter on its website and noted President Higgins had wished Tehran well in its “struggle for peace”.
Speaking to Newstalk, Holocaust Awareness Ireland founder Oliver Sears said the claim was “so easy to disprove”.
“The Iranians posted the letter themselves on their own website and on their own Twitter/X account,” he said.
“They subsequently took it down but that’s so easy to prove.
“Why would you possibly think you could get away with blaming the Israelis for something the Iranians had done to further demonise the Israeli Government?
“I find it deeply disturbing because it feeds into a very old conspiracy theory that Jews are somehow perfidious and villainous - it’s one of the oldest antisemitic tropes.”
Irish-Israeli relations
Taoiseach Simon Harris, who is also in New York at the UN, has given his backing to President Higgins in his dispute with the Israeli Embassy.
“I think the Israeli Embassy should be focusing on things other than amplifying, circulating or referencing a letter that does really conform to normal diplomatic protocol between Heads of State,” he said.
“You’d like to think Israel would be more concerned with the fact that 14,000 children in Gaza are dead and at least 20,000 are missing - many presumed dead.
“Certainly, my focus here in New York is not on an exchange of letters.”
Mr Sears said he was disappointed that the Irish Government has no interest in building better relations with Israel.
“I think the fact that both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have somehow backed him up in this case is a kind of reckless piece of diplomacy,” he said.
“The Government should be doing everything they can to engage with the Israeli Government rather than demonising them in this way.”
Áras an Uachtaráin has been contacted for comment.
Main image: Michael D Higgins. Picture by: SplashNews.com
