Deputy Chairperson in Irish Parliament reportedly claims Israel is trying to accomplish “Jewish supremacy”
A politician in Ireland has claimed that Israel is trying to accomplish “Jewish supremacy”, it was reported earlier this week.
Catherine Connolly, the Deputy Chairperson of the Lower House of Ireland’s Parliament, allegedly asked Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney if by his ministry’s “indicating support for the Jewish character of the Israeli state”, it agrees with “the treatment by Israel of Palestinian communities in its attempts to accomplish Jewish supremacy.”
It was also said that she asked Minister Coveney about “his views on whether these attempts to perpetuate the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians amount to apartheid, and if he will make a statement on the matter.”
The phrase “Jewish supremacy” is regarded by many as an antisemitic conspiracy theory which states that Jews harbour the goal of world domination, a false allegation that the Nazi Party used to justify its persecution against Jewish people.
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is an example of antisemitism.
The Foreign Minister reportedly said that he “respect[s] the strong connection between the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”
“By their very nature, all states have certain inherent characteristics,” he said, using “socialist, democratic, united, Islamic, Arab or Jewish” as examples, but he added that those states should have “full respect for the equal rights of all citizens, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or other similar factors.”
Jewish Representative Council of Ireland Chairperson Maurice Cohen said that Deputy Connolly had “strayed into classic antisemitic language by perpetuating the trope of ‘Jewish supremacy.’”
“The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland urges all political parties, as well as both Houses of the Oireachtas [legislature] to immediately adopt the [Definition] of antisemitism to which the government is already a European signatory,” he added.
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