Anti-Israel demonstrators stand outside the Israeli embassy after Ireland has announced it will recognize a Palestinian state, in Dublin, Ireland, May 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Molly Darlington

Ireland’s decision to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and its support for redefining genocide in order to secure a conviction against the Jewish state is the key reason for shuttering Israel’s embassy in Dublin, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday.

The move to close the embassy, which Sa’ar announced a day earlier, marked the first time Israel has closed an embassy of a European Union member state. It was a significant escalation in already strained relations, with Jerusalem accusing the Irish government of undermining Israel at international forums and promoting “extreme anti-Israel policies.”

Ireland has “crossed all the red lines,” Sa’ar told reporters on Monday, calling the Irish government’s actions “unilateral hostility and persecution” rather than mere criticism.

“Zionism and Zionists have become derogatory words in Ireland. They called the IDF’s actions war crimes,” he said.

Sa’ar blasted Dublin for supporting legal actions against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), promoting double standards, and failing to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

The announcement came after Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza, accusing the country of “the starvation of children” and “the killing of civilians” — remarks that Sa’ar slammed as “antisemitic” and historically insensitive. “Is Israel starving children?” Sa’ar asked.

“When Jewish children died of starvation in the Holocaust, Ireland was at best neutral in the war against Nazi Germany,” Sa’ar said. “In his victory speech at the end of World War II, Winston Churchill described how Ireland conducted an affair with Nazi Germany.”

Irish Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder expressed regret at the embassy closure decision but echoed concerns about the Irish government’s approach.

“Ireland has chosen to vilify and roundly criticize Israel, without any recognition of the complexities of the realities in Gaza and Lebanon,” Wieder told The Algemeiner from Dublin.

“Irish political leaders have refused to acknowledge that Israel is waging war against jihadist terrorist organizations intent on its destruction. The anti-Israel narrative in Ireland has become extremely hateful, and is full of disinformation and distortions,” he added.

Wieder noted that Irish leaders had shown “no genuine concern for the plight of the hostages” taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and failed to demonstrate solidarity with Israel after the attacks, in which 1,200 people were murdered and 253 taken hostage.

“In the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, while many other European countries flew Israeli flags above their government or public buildings, no such act of solidarity was shown in Ireland,” he said.

Wieder went on to say that while the embassy closure would “be a blow” for Israelis living in Ireland, many within that community view the move as inevitable.

Sa’ar accused Dublin of systematically working to harm Israel’s relationship with the European Union and adopting rhetoric that dehumanized Israelis and Zionists.

As relations with Ireland deteriorate, Israel plans to redirect diplomatic efforts elsewhere. Sa’ar announced the opening of a new Israeli embassy in Moldova, highlighting the government’s intention to focus on fostering ties with countries that show greater support for Israel.

“This is not only a matter of national pride but also of wise statesmanship,” Sa’ar said, emphasizing the importance of responding decisively to what he called persecution on the “diplomatic battlefield.”

“Acting sensibly against those who persecute the State of Israel is a matter of saving lives,” Sa’ar concluded.

Harris called the embassy decision “deeply regrettable.”

Ireland’s Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said there were no plans to sever diplomatic ties with Israel.

Ireland has been among Europe’s fiercest critics of Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

Last month, the Irish parliament passed a non-binding motion saying that “genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza.” Ireland’s cabinet last week voted to join South Africa’s “genocide” case at the ICJ.

In May, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, prompting outrage in Israel, which described the move as a “reward for terrorism.” Israel’s Ambassador in Dublin Dana Erlich said at the time of Ireland’s recognition of “Palestine” that Ireland was “not an honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Harris also called on the European Union to “review its trade relations” with Israel after the Israeli parliament passed legislation banning the activities in the country of UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, because of its ties to Hamas.

Recent anti-Israel actions in Ireland came shortly after the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (Impact-se), an Israeli education watchdog group, released a new report revealing Irish school textbooks have been filled with negative stereotypes and distortions of Israel, Judaism, and Jewish history.

Antisemitism in Ireland has become “blatant and obvious” in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught, according to Alan Shatter, a former member of parliament who served in the Irish cabinet between 2011 and 2014 as Minister for Justice, Equality and Defense. Shatter told The Algemeiner in an interview earlier this year that Ireland has “evolved into the most hostile state towards Israel in the entire EU.”