President Michael D Higgins was right to make reference to the war in Gaza during a speech marking Holocaust Memorial Day, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.
Several members of the Jewish community had criticised the fact Mr Higgins was invited to give the keynote speech at the event marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp, given his previous criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Several protesters walked out of the event in Mansion House in Dublin, and one was removed, after Mr Higgins made reference to Israel’s war in Gaza in his remarks.
Mr Higgins said he hoped the families of those killed by Hamas militants during the October 7th attacks in southern Israel, those waiting for the release of others taken hostage, and the thousands searching for loved ones buried in “the rubble of Gaza” would “welcome the long-overdue ceasefire”.
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[ Protesters walk out of Michael D Higgins’s speech at Holocaust Memorial Day eventOpens in new window ]
Speaking on Monday, Mr Harris said the annual Holocaust memorial event was always carried out with “great solemnity” and sensitivity. “I think the President was very clear, as is the Government, as are the people of Ireland, in calling out the horrors of the Holocaust,” the Fine Gael leader said.
Mr Harris said Mr Higgins had “rightly mentioned the situation in the Middle East” and at the same time called for Israeli hostages still held by Hamas to be released.
“Today is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, today is international Holocaust Memorial Day and I think it’s important that we keep the focus on that ... I am conscious this is a very sensitive time and I don’t want to say anything to distract from that,” he said.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Monday attended a commemoration in Auschwitz to mark the 80th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation.
[ Auschwitz survivors to mark 80th anniversary of camp’s liberationOpens in new window ]
When asked about Mr Higgins’s comments, Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said: “There are very strongly held views across the board and I think it is very hard to make any comment in this area without somebody most likely being offended.”
Mr Harris, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs, said he welcomed the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. “I think our focus now has to be on making sure that it lasts,” he said. The amount of humanitarian aid that needed to get to Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip was “almost incomprehensible”, he said.
“President Trump and his team were very much a party to the ceasefire agreement and I acknowledge that, the very intensive work that the Trump administration put in the days before Trump assumed office,” he said.
Mr Harris said the Government planned to set up a “trade consultative forum”, to prepare for possible economic headwinds caused by the new Trump administration. “What I want to do is get people around the table ... to get people around the table in the broadest sense of the word, Team Ireland, whether you are the Government of Ireland, people investing in Ireland, people looking to seek investment in Ireland,” he said.
[ Micheál Martin: Anti-Semitism is increasing across the world. We must actOpens in new window ]
Mr Trump has floated the idea of levying tariffs of up to 20 per cent on goods coming from Europe and has spoken about his desire to lure US multinationals based abroad back to the US. Ireland needed to “control what we can control” and do business with the Trump White House, Mr Harris said.
Large multinational companies who were based in the Republic wanted to see things like a greater investment in infrastructure, he said. “There’s many, many reasons why people do business in Ireland and I don’t believe those reasons have fundamentally changed at all,” he said.
Mr Harris was speaking in Brussels, where he was attending his first meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers.
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