Israel, Ireland, Judaism, Zionism

This is a guest post from the JPF family by Simon Lewis , author of Jewtown, and originally published on Medium.

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Israel, Ireland, Judaism, Zionism

I went to Israel when I was fourteen. I was representing my country in the Maccabiah Games, or the Jewish Olympics. It was 1993 and it was one of the times that there was relative peace in Israel. In fact, you could be forgiven for thinking that all-out peace was about to take place under the leadership of Yitzhak Rabin. I was playing chess in the junior section and was one of three youths representing Ireland.

It was the first time I realised that simply being Irish got a very positive reaction. Revealing that I was playing chess, however, brought any aspirations of being cool quickly back to earth. However, one thing I remember very clearly was the question I was asked after “Where are you from?” It was, “Do you get much anti-Semitism in Ireland?”

Having gone to the only Jewish school in Ireland, I knew what antisemitism was and I knew what it looked like, but it was something that happened to other Jewish people in other countries. I never faced a single incident in my young life at the time, yet no matter who I spoke to in Israel, that was the main question. I had family over there and I stayed with them for a couple of nights. They brought me to the beach where they hung out with all their friends. One after another: “Do you get much anti-Semitism in Ireland?”

Until last year, I can safely say apart from a tiny handful of incidents, I have never felt unsafe being from a Jewish ethnicity living in Ireland. I imagine anyone who has suffered racism, xenophobia, or any other prejudice remembers clearly their first incident and mine was during a by-election in Dublin South Bay. An anonymous troll screenshotted my face and said that I had a certain Eastern European ghetto look about me.

The result of this was an outcry of support from all sectors of the education system. I got phone calls from the INTO and CPSMA asking if there was anything they could do to support me.

Since the October 7th attacks and Israel’s atrocious war, I receive an average of one anti-Semitic message a week. I don’t get phone calls or any messages from anyone. I completely understand why this is. I imagine like the people who tell me to go kill some Palestinian children or to go and f-off to Israel or some slur about my physical features, many people probably assume I am sympathetic to Israel’s regime.

I am not a public figure but I, like many Jews, have a response ready should anyone take the time to ask me. I may be from a Jewish ethnicity but I do not support Zionism. I certainly do not support the Zionism that has taken root in large sections of Israel and is using Judaism as a weapon to justify the indiscriminate killing of innocent people. I can only speak for myself but to be absolutely clear I categorically reject Israel’s justification for its murderous campaign which, they say, is being done in my name.

I have been listening to Dana Erlich, the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland, saying that Jewish people in Ireland feel unsafe. I have tried to ignore it for quite some time but this week she is on the airwaves trying to sway Irish voters. I noticed one such post on X where a Jewish person said she was not going to vote for a political party despite agreeing with almost all of their manifesto because of their antisemitic stance. This party has a strong stance on the Israel-Palestine war but, as far as I have experienced, it is not an anti-Jewish stance, it is anti-Zionist.

In general, most Irish people separate Judaism and Zionism. As I’ve said, I will admit, that my timeline has had an increase in antisemitic tropes and I will admit nobody has said a word about them to me and I will admit I am, for the first time, a little more worried about my ethnicity. However, I lay the foundation of this on the Israeli government’s actions. They say they are doing this in my name. It is no wonder a small minority of people correlate Israel’s actions with Judaism, given that is the narrative given. Many Irish Jews do not support Israel’s war despite the official line.

Unless I say otherwise, some will probably accuse me of being pro-Hamas or pro-terrorism or a self-hating Jew. I am none of these things. I am pro-peace. We have a situation where there are a lot of bad guys in charge and the result of this is that thousands of innocent people are paying the price for their hatred, their thirst for dominance. While I can understand the discomfort some Jews might feel walking around seeing Palestinian flags waving from buildings, they (and I) need to remember they are rooted, not in antisemitism, but in pro-peace.

As much as Israel believes it should have a right to exist, so does Palestine. It doesn’t matter about the past because if both groups believe in the Semitic god that created the earth they live on, it is a land that wasn’t owned by anyone, and in the intervening years since then, it has changed hands many times. Right now, the only solution is for both States to be allowed to exist and for everyone treated equally and with respect. I don’t believe, there is anything antisemitic in that.