Central Bank of Ireland confirms it will no longer approve sale of Israeli ‘war bonds’

[Everexpanding]

Good news. Political pressure, protests and letters beginning to work

www.irishtimes.com/business/2025/09/01/israel-to-market-war-bonds-through-luxembourg-as-irish-authority-expires/

You are barking up the wrong tree Sharon. Antisemitism was deeply entrenched in Europe at this time - so I can only imagine that we too had anti semitism. There also are anti Semitic views today I’m sure.

However what I would argue what is more prevalent (although still very much a minority of people) is support for terrorism or “armed resistance” as they would say. That’s probably a genuine point you could make if you actually knew anything about Ireland or Irish society and weren’t just getting your info off twitter feeds from others who have well have truly drank the Kool aid. But again this attitude isn’t prevalent in the ruling parties or present in our policies and law.

In fact you cherry picking comments from people in the 1940’s or talking about incidents in 1905 as “proof” that anti semitism exists today is completely ridiculous, if you knew anything. Ireland is almost completely unrecognisable from 30 years ago, never mind 1905.

As for your modern day examples. Some mayor went to an event, someone flew a flag - honest to god give me strength.

Antisemitism among Irish Christians at ‘Medieval’ levels, say researchers

From an article dated April 2025:

Antisemitic attitudes among Christians in Ireland are “disturbing” and “Medieval,” due in large part to entrenched religious beliefs held by the Catholic community, according to a new survey.

Conducted by Professors Motti Inbari of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Kirill Bumin of Boston University and Metropolitan College, the study’s findings revealed even stronger anti-Jewish sentiments in the Republic of Ireland than they found in their survey of the United Kingdom, published in January, the authors said.

The December 2024 study of 1,014 Christian adults in Ireland found that a third believe Jewish people “still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust. Some 49 percent agreed with the statement “Jews are more loyal to Israel than this country” and 36% said they believe Jews “have too much power in the business world.” About 31% agreed with statements that Jews “don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind,” and that they are hated “because of the way they behave.”

Ireland’s support for Israel is just a third of that in the United States, where the pair have conducted extensive research of Christian communities. Only 11.3% of Irish Christians support Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians, compared to 42.3% of Americans polled last year, the report found. Conversely, 45.6% of Irish respondents support the Palestinian side of the conflict, versus just 11.2% of Americans.

The findings come amid heightened tensions between Ireland and Israel, following Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Ireland in December and Dublin’s joining South Africa at the International Court of Justice in its genocide case against Israel.

Ireland’s Jewish community is small, numbering only about 2,700, a fraction of a percentage point among the country’s population of 5.3 million. About half of the community resides in the capital city of Dublin.

“What struck me is that we have the same percentages of people in both countries who say that they are generally familiar with the conflict, getting the same information from the same media, yet their understanding is fundamentally different,” Bumin told The Times of Israel. “Our study shows that much of this is due to differences in pre-existing theological beliefs, political and social attitudes, and levels of exposure to Jews that drastically vary between the US and Ireland.”

A November 2024 report by the education monitoring group IMPACT-se found that textbooks used in Irish schools included profound distortions of the Holocaust, Israel, Judaism, and Jewish history.

“It’s disturbing to see a Western democracy so steeped in prejudice and bias,” Inbari said in a statement. “It’s like we’re living in Medieval times.”

www.timesofisrael.com/antisemitism-among-irish-christians-at-medieval-levels-say-researchers/

From the same article:

Theological differences between Christian denominations play an important role, with Catholics in Ireland almost 80% less likely to support Israel than Protestants, the survey found.

“Even after we control for politics, for various religious beliefs, for demographic factors like race and income, we still find that Catholics in all countries are less supportive of Israel and are more likely to endorse antisemitic tropes than Protestants,” Bumin noted.

The research also identified a significant generational divide, with younger Irish respondents being substantially less supportive of Israel than older generations. Under-30 respondents in Ireland are 87% less likely to support Israel than those 65 or older, according to the report.

A unique phenomenon in Ireland is that many antisemitic attitudes in Ireland appear to originate within churches themselves, Bumin noted. Beliefs such as supersessionism (the idea that God’s covenant with the Jewish people has ended) and blaming Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus are “far more widespread in the Irish community than they are in America,” he said.

Pastors and religious leaders could help fight antisemitism by playing down those aspects of belief while emphasizing the connection between the Abrahamic covenant, Bumin suggested.

Yes - I can read the title-
Central Bank of Ireland confirms it will no longer approve sale of Israeli ‘war bonds‘

and how @Everexpanding had wanted to talk about what pressure can be put on Netanyahu’s government to change course.

I know what other posters would have preferred to talk about as well - which is understandable, but we can’t lose focus on what is happening in Gaza.

My question was directed to @SharonEllis.

Sorry

This is complete nonsense. So young people (who are generally not religious at all) are more influenced by what their “pastors and religious leaders” say than the older generation (who are much more likely to be religious here)

I can guarantee you that the average person on the street has never even heard of supersessionism.

It’s honestly completely bizarre. Makes no sense at all. I think the researchers assume that under 65’s in Ireland are active catholics who go to mass regularly.

The survey is about the attitudes of Christian adults.

A November 2024 report by the education monitoring group IMPACT-se found that textbooks used in Irish schools included profound distortions of the Holocaust, Israel, Judaism, and Jewish history.

IMPACT-se has exceptionally high standards. This is a good thing and we should always strive to do better when educating the young. However, I don’t think errors in textbooks should automatically be seen as coming from a place of anti-semitism.

As an example, the report included objections to a sentence in a LC textbook which referred to the Halocaust as “a systematic destruction of the Jewish race” (iirc). That statement was found to be offensive for a number of reasons. I was surprised by how offensive it was considered, but I had to assume I was wrong to be surprised by this. So I read up on it and I now understand the objections (to the word race, and to the minimisation of the Holocaust by using the word destruction rather than genocide).

My point is I think intent is important.
In the case mentioned above I doubt it was a deliberate ‘profound distortion’ iyswim. I know I learnt about the horrors of the Holocaust at school in Ireland.
Yes, we get things wrong sometimes when it comes to textbooks and should of course be corrected. That is to be welcomed.
But I don’t think people should infer that Irish textbook authors/Irish society are anti-semitic from these sorts of mistakes.

Most adults in Ireland describe themselves as Christian. This is meaningless with regards to actually knowing the bible or even attending mass. It means they celebrate births; deaths; communions and marriages in the traditional way - with a church and lots of fanfare. The “researchers” have gone looking in the wrong place.

I had a deeply religious education. Of the type that no longer exists in Ireland really. And nobody ever mentioned to me that Jesus was killed by the Jews or about supersessionism. Jesus and all the first followers of Christianity were Jewish.

You’re just one person though. The survey found what it found with a bigger sample than one.

beginning to doubt my life experience. Have I been excluded from all the conversations my friends, families and co workers and the very secret anti semitic cabal at the heart of Irish government have been having about supersessionism?and their deep anti semitism? or is the information being posted absolute cobblers.

Have heard many discussions about events in Gaza, all spoke of shock and sadness at seeing so many innocent civilians trapped and murdered most were particularly horrified by the number of children killed and injured. None of the discussions I have heard were anti semitic or stemmed from anything but normal human empathy.

again as the allegations you made referred to the Irish state being anti semitic, please list the current anti semitic policies of the Irish government

Oh yes that’s what it must be 🤣

Honestly. It’s cobblers. they don’t have an understanding of what they are talking about.

Interesting though that you’re both Irish @PaxAeterna & @Everexpanding and also @Martymcfly24 from previous conversations.

Im not suggesting that everyone in Ireland is antisemitic of course or that you are as individuals . But it occurs to me that Irish people seem more staunchly pro Palestinian on these threads and I wonder if English people - speaking very generally- tend to err more towards being Israel supporters.

Anyone with any knowledge of Ireland would know that they are looking in the wrong place. Young people are more likely to want a United Ireland than their older counterparts. The dogs in the street could tell you that that's where these 'researchers' should be looking rather than the 15% of young people that regularly attend religious services.

Have you not read any of the many posts here that explain this? Someone posted this article earlier. There are loads of similar articles that explain the history of Ireland and Palestine and as the article puts it the same cast of colonial characters.

www.npr.org/2024/03/14/1233395830/ireland-pro-palestinian

It gets really frustrating people waging on about religion in Ireland when they clearly have no knowledge of Irish culture or life. It would be like me looking at the news, reading social media and deciding that the reason more people in the UK support Israel is because more of you are anti Islam. I wouldn't have to search back a 100 years to find 1000s of examples of Islamaphobia in the UK.

Sorry @Twiglets1 you did not claim I was anti semitic I will get that deleted

Why would I know much about religion in Ireland when I’m English? I wouldn’t but it’s an interesting thought that whether we are pro Pal or support Israel may be partly connected to whether we are English or Irish (unconscious bias).

Well either you do or I will 😀

Well yes it isn't any secret that Ireland is one of the most pro Palestinian countries in the world. That's why there have been multiple articles written explaining why.

I think the 857+ pensioners arrested for supporting Palestine Action might disagree with the theory that English people lean more to supporting Israel

No they wouldn’t support the theory but they don’t represent all pensioners or English people. Taken as a whole, English pensioners could still be more likely to support Israel than Irish pensioners.

@GladioliGreen says it isn’t any secret that Ireland is one of the most pro Palestinian countries in the world so the flip side to that would be a more negative attitude to Israel I guess since they have been in conflict for so long.

I think maybe a lot of our posts on this matter have gone over your head.

But short answer is yes. I mean the UK population is getting there….it’s getting harder and harder to brush off concerns with an insistence that the messengers just hate Jewish people.