The dam is breaking, folks. An article in the Sunday Independent today. I really recommend reading in full, but here is an excerpt of note for the Irish deniers of antisemitism: ‘It would equally be unwise to downplay a report being compiled by the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI), which details a significant rise in antisemitic incidents. I was granted early access to the preliminary findings and spoke at length with Maurice Cohen, the chairman of the JRCI, and Orli Degani, who are overseeing the report’s compilation. It so far details 130 antisemitic incidents reported over four months this year. In comparison, a recent Guardian article documented about 1,500 incidents in the UK during a similar period. The UK is home to 300,000 Jewish residents; Ireland’s Jewish population is just over 2,000. Although such comparisons must be made with caution – given potential differences in reporting methods and definitions – the Irish figures, relative to the size of our Jewish population are profoundly worrying. Notably, none of the 130 incidents include social media posts.’ We have already seen a few of the deniers of antisemitism change their tune in the face of the Herzog Park scandal, I expect more will follow in the coming weeks when details of this report is published. The dam is breaking.

Posted by Fred Bassett