Ireland's ambassador to Israel, Alison Kelly, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry this week to be reprimanded over Dublin Lord Mayor Micheal Mac Donncha's participation in an anti-Israel symposium being held in Ramallah, and over two resolutions hostile to Israel recently passed in the Dublin City Council.
The Ramallah event was an Islamic conference about Jerusalem organized by the religious affairs adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mac Donncha is a supporter of the movement to boycott Israel and was not supposed to have been allowed into the country, but according to a report in Haaretz, immigration officials misspelled his name on the order, which kept him off the watch list.
The deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry's Europe Division, Rodica Radian-Gordon, spoke with Kelly and expressed her astonishment and disappointment that the Dublin mayor had chosen to take part in the Ramallah event. According to a statement issued by the ministry, Radian-Gordon "expressed her astonishment and deep disappointment that the lord mayor chose to participate in such a blatant anti-Israel event.
The Foreign Ministry said "this is especially disturbing when taken in context with the timing of the event" – the week during which Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"The government of Israel expects an official public response from the government of Ireland with regard to the conduct of both the Dublin city council and of the lord mayor [of Dublin], who are waging a campaign of hatred and discrimination against the State of Israel," Radian-Gordon said.
On Thursday, the Irish Embassy said in a Twitter message that in her meeting with Radian-Gordon, Kelly had reiterated the government of Ireland's policies on the matters raised by the Foreign Ministry, "including the government's firm opposition to a policy of BDS in relation to Israel."
The embassy tweet went on to express surprise that Mac Donncha had been singled out by Israeli authorities for participating in the Ramallah event, "given that he has worked well with the Israeli Embassy in Dublin."
