Sir, – I welcome the Dáil marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a minute’s silence and President Michael D Higgins speaking at the Mansion House in Dublin at the Holocaust Remembrance event.
I also welcome the attendance by members of the Government and the Houses of the Oireachtas at the Mansion House and also at Dublin Castle to view the Objects of Love exhibition presented by Holocaust Awareness Ireland. It is right that we remember the victims of the Holocaust and commit to “ never again”.
To ensure “never again” is not merely a slogan and has substantive effect more is required than annual remembrance.
2021 has witnessed a global escalation in anti-Semitic events, over 50 per cent of which took place in Europe.
In Europe, Ireland is an outlier in failing to adopt and apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism which has been expressly supported by the European Council, European Commission and European Parliament.
In the article “Promised Government action on anti-Semitism is just blah, blah, blah” (Opinion & Analysis, November 29th, 2021), I explained the content and importance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition and that it forms an important tool to assist “states, including Ireland, in identifying and counteracting anti-Semitic hate at national level which is expressed in speech, writing, visual forms and in action”.
Silence has to date been the response of both Government and the Dáil to my article.
The IHRA is an intergovernmental organisation of which Ireland is a member. It is a pity that the one minute’s Dáil silence to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day was not immediately followed by a Government announcement of its intention to adopt the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism. On that, the Government and the Dáil still remain silent. – Yours, etc,
ALAN SHATTER,
Dublin 16.