Dublin halts plans to rename city’s Herzog Park after accusations of antisemitism

Council chief refers matter back to committee, after proposal called out by Irish PM, drew charges of antisemitism from Israel and local Jewish community

Dublin councillors halted plans to rename a park currently honoring a past Israeli president that had drawn criticism from the Irish and Israeli governments, the city council said on Sunday.

The park, located near Dublin’s sole Jewish school, is named after Ireland-born Chaim Herzog, Israel’s sixth president.

Ireland, home to about 3,000 Jewish people, has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and the move to rename “Herzog Park” followed a campaign by anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists, but official council documents did not disclose a reason for the proposal.

The proposal had been scheduled for a city council vote in the near future.

But after it drew accusations of antisemitism, Dublin City Council Chief Executive Richard Shakespeare announced he was “proposing to withdraw the report from the Agenda,” citing procedural reasons.

In a statement, Shakespeare said he was referring the matter back to the council committee responsible, without touching on the debate sparked by the renaming plan.

Earlier Sunday, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin had argued in a statement on X that the proposal “should be withdrawn in its entirety.

“The proposal is a denial of our history and will without any doubt be seen as antisemitic,” Martin said, calling it “overtly divisive and wrong.”

Herzog, who died in 1997, was born in Belfast in Northern Ireland and grew up in Dublin before serving as Israeli president between 1983 and 1993. His father was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland after it gained independence from Britain in 1922, while his son, Isaac Herzog, is the current Israeli president.

Herzog’s office said on Saturday the proposal, due to be approved next week, would be “shameful and disgraceful” if carried out.

Ireland’s current Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder said removing the name would “erase a central piece of Irish-Jewish history.”

Maurice Cohen, who leads the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI), said the proposal was “already perceived by our community as a gross act of antisemitism.”

The south Dublin park, which houses a tennis club and 10 tennis courts, was named in Herzog’s honor in a 1995 ceremony marking the tri-millennium of Jerusalem, according to the Dublin City Council website. It was previously called Orwell Quarry Park, according to the website.

At least one online petition, created in April 2024 by the Irish Sport for Palestine organization, community soccer team 1915 FC and Irish nationalist group 1916 Societies, called for the park to be renamed after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was reportedly killed by Israel in Gaza City in January 2024 along with five of her family members and two medics who had gone to save them. The petition has attracted more than 3,400 signatures.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Saturday that “Dublin has become the capital of antisemitism in the world.”

“The Irish antisemitic and anti-Israeli obsession is sickening,” said Sa’ar.

Though Dublin may be removing the name of Chaim Herzog from the park, he wrote on X, “what cannot be removed is the disgrace of the Irish antisemitic and anti-Israeli obsession.”

Last December, Sa’ar ordered the closure of its Dublin embassy, blaming Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.”