Move to strip former Israeli leader’s name from a Dublin park sparks an outcry in Ireland

LONDON (AP) – A proposal to rename a Dublin park named after a former Israeli president has sparked an outcry, with Ireland’s chief rabbi saying it would be “a shameful erasure” of the country’s Jewish history.

Supporters argue that renaming Herzog Park would be a gesture of solidarity with Palestinians following the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that left more than 70,000 people dead, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

A proposal from Dublin City Council’s Commemorations and Naming Committee to strip Herzog’s name from the park was due for a vote at a council meeting on Monday evening. But after days of acrimony, Lord Mayor Ray McAdam said the proposal would be withdrawn.

Council Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare said the issue could not be voted on for technical reasons, because the “correct statutory procedure” had not been followed.

The park in south Dublin was named in 1995 for Chaim Herzog, the sixth president of Israel, part of a family with strong ties to Ireland. Herzog was born in Belfast and raised in Dublin, and was the son of Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Ireland’s first chief rabbi.

He served as president of Israel between 1983 and 1993. His son, Isaac Herzog, is the country’s current president.

In a post on X, the Israeli president’s office said renaming the park would be “shameful and disgraceful.”

Members of the left-leaning Irish political parties People Before Profit and Sinn Fein supported the name change. Sinn Fein city councilor Daithí Doolan said it was “an act of solidarity with Palestinians” and a criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

Public sentiment in Ireland is strongly pro-Palestinian, especially among those on the left. Many see similarities between the struggle for Palestinian statehood and Ireland’s long fight for independence from Britain.

Ireland’s center-right government was one of the first in Europe to recognize a Palestinian state. Israel announced a year ago it would close its Dublin embassy over what it called Ireland’s extreme anti-Israel policies.”

The Irish government has opposed renaming the park, with Prime Minister Micheál Martin calling the idea “divisive and wrong.”

Ireland’s Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder said removing Herzog’s name would be “a shameful erasure of a central part of Irish Jewish history.”

He said the Herzog family “embodied the bond between the Irish story and the Jewish story,” noting that Ireland and Israel had common history as “two small courageous nations both struggling for independence from British rule.”

“Today, you don’t hear about this shared history anymore,” he told national broadcaster RTE. “There are parts of our society, such as the people proposing this move, that want to whitewash this part of our history, but we need to acknowledge this kinship between Irish nationalism and Jewish nationalism was recognized and valued.”

The Israel-Hamas war started after the Palestinian militant group led a surprise attack on Oct. 7, 2023, leaving 1,200 people dead and more than 250 others were taken hostage.

Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached last month, Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory have continued, raising the death toll, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run government. It is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.