Dublin City Councillor, Mannix Flynn calls the allegations of antisemitism surrounding the Herzog Park affair “scurrilous”.
That is a remarkably convenient way to avoid confronting what was actually said at the
@DubCityCouncil meeting last December 2025. Yet again, an elected official is lecturing the Jewish community on the definition of antisemitism.
Criticism of Israel is not antisemitism. The old antisemitic trope of Jewish power and hidden influence, and calling for the destruction of the state of Israel is something else entirely. These examples are explicitly referred to in the IHRA definition of antisemitism to which the Irish Government is a signatory.
During the Herzog Park debate, councillors spoke of an “Israeli lobby” supposedly giving “instructions” to senior Irish politicians, a “full court press by the Zionist lobby”, and even suggested that Israeli intelligence was behind communications with Dublin City Council.
These are not criticisms of Israeli policy. They are allegations of covert influence and political control, precisely the kind of conspiracy theory that is promoted by antisemites.
And the consequences are not abstract: A campaign centred on Israel and Chaim Herzog was brought into the heart of Dublin's Jewish community, causing profound hurt and isolation. The Council's own subsequent report now acknowledges the “deep division” caused by the affair.
So before dismissing accusations of antisemitism as “scurrilous”, perhaps Mr Flynn should consider the language used by some of his fellow councillors, how it demonises Jews and its impact on a tiny community living in Ireland.
Calling out antisemitic tropes is not scurrilous. Casually dismissing antisemitism by those who do not recognise it, nor feels its effects is scurrilous.