The election of Catherine Connolly as president of Ireland is not good news for Israel. She stands out even among Irish anti-Israeli politicians.
Connolly, a veteran lawmaker on the far left of the Irish political spectrum, is an outspoken supporter of Palestine and frequently speaks about the "genocide" in Gaza and criticizes "atrocities" committed by Israel. During her campaign she even told BBC News that Hamas was "part of the fabric of Palestinian people" legitimately elected to lead Gaza.
Even Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin criticized those comments and attacked her for being reluctant to condemn Hamas’s actions in the Octover 7, 2023, attack on Israel that ignited the two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Connolly later admitted that she “utterly condemned” Hamas’s actions and that its October 7, 2023, onslaught against Israel, which started the war, was “absolutely unacceptable.” However, referring to the lower house of the Irish legislature, she stated that “If we in this Dáil can’t recognize that Israel is a terrorist state, then we’re in serious trouble,” She even went on to criticize Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
Connolly's story brought to my mind a former presidential campaign in which I was indirectly involved.
On October 3, 2011, I got an email from Vincent Browne, presenter of a current affairs television program in Irish channel TV3 and host of the daily program “Tonight with Vincent B".
Vincent wrote to me that David Norris, a forerunner for the presidency, had a gay relationship with an Israeli citizen by the name of Ezra Nawi. Nawi was charged and convicted in an Israeli court for committing statutory rape and having sexual relations with an underage Palestinian boy. Norris wrote to the judges in the case and to other office holders in Israel, pleading for clemency for his former lover, after the conviction had occurred.
One of the letters has emerged in the public domain, that to the judge in the case, but the others have not been disclosed. Norris claims that he received legal advice from Israeli lawyers saying that he cannot disclose these letters because the case was heard in camera.
Brown asked for my advice whether letters written to the Israeli President, ministers in the Israeli government and other public officials could be deemed legally non-disclosable because they referred to a case heard in camera.
I responded since the case was heard in camera, probably because a minor victim was involved, one may not report the proceedings including documents that were submitted in court without the court's permission.
However, this does not apply to the said letters provided that the identity of the minor is not disclosed.
My email reached Brown just in time because that evening he hosted in his show the presidential candidates. Norris had an impressive record on human rights and equality advocacy. His record, coupled with his positivity, public image and charisma, resonates with people made him a sure winner in the coming elections.
The occurrences during the show have been reported by Politico, a current affairs website as follows:
“During Tuesday night's Presidential Debate on TV3, presenter Vincent Browne asked Norris from whom he had received legal advice that the letters could not be released," Politico wrote. "David Norris appeared to be caught unaware and refused to answer the question. Understandably, under the pressurized circumstances of a live television debate."
"Norris may have been unable to recall the name of the legal firm, and could have given an undertaking to clarify the source of the legal advice following the debate. However, Norris had prior notice of the question and knew that a differing legal perspective had been received by TV3”.
At that point Vincent read out my opinion, taking Norris by surprise. His reply was: "The Irish people know me; they know my record. My life is an open book." Nevertheless, as reported by Politico, “the controversy has been very damaging, as was reflected in two opinion polls”, taken after the debate, “which show that Mr. Norris has lost half of his support”. In the end Norris, who at some point led with a 50% majority in the polls, came out last with merely 6.2% of the votes and as a result resigned from the presidential race.
When I was guest of the Trinity College in Ireland, I learned in person of the impact that my opinion had on shaping the election results.
Norris's defeat, Higgins's and Connelly's election
Israel had no reason to regret Norris' defeat. He was an outspoken critic of Israel and even pride himself as being "an anti-Zionist". He blamed Israel for intentionally bombarding UN schools causing the death of children. Norris compared the behavior of Israel to that of the Nazis and as a senator submitted a bill declaring economical contacts with Jews residing in the West Bank a criminal offence.
Yet, the frustration of Norris' election did not yield profits for Israel. Michael Higgins, chair of the Labor party, who was elected was not less hostile. Thus, he used his speech to the country’s Holocaust remembrance ceremony, a speech he had been asked by Ireland’s Jewish community not to make, to lambast Israel, turning what should have been a solemn, serious and apolitical event into a nasty and demonstration of his obsession with the world’s only Jewish state.
Higgins' provocative speech led to the grotesque spectacle of a Holocaust memorial ceremony being marked by security guards dragging Jews along the ground to remove them because they took issue with the hatred being spouted by their country’s president.
If that was not enough, we are faced now with a president who is an open supporter of Hamas. In the midst of the bloody civil war she visited Syria, pledged support for Bashar al-Assad known as "the butcher", met with a terror leader who was charged with committing war crimes and called to "free Palestine."
Indeed, no easy time awaits Israel under President Connolly.
Prof. Asher Maoz is Founding Dean of the Peres Academic Center Law school and vice president of the International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty.