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A Dublin hotel declined to host an international event focused on combating antisemitism and subsequently withdrew approximately 70 rooms reserved for delegates after its general manager questioned whether the Israel Defense Forces would be involved, according to a Jewish community leader who attended the meeting.
Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, told Fox News Digital that he and an event organizer met with representatives of the Herbert Park Hotel, including its general manager, on May 7 to explain the gathering and discuss arrangements.
The event was connected to this week’s Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism Conference, which brought Jewish leaders, diplomats and government officials responsible for confronting antisemitism to Dublin, Ireland.
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The Herbert Park Hotel, a 4 star hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland. (Luciann Photography / Shutterstock via Getty Images)
Cohen said organizers had received written confirmation that approximately 70 rooms were being held for participants.
During the meeting, Cohen explained that the event would bring together Jewish community representatives, diplomats and government officials, many of whom were not Jewish. He said the manager’s demeanor appeared to change before she asked whether the IDF would be involved.
“I was completely taken aback by that question,” Cohen told Fox News Digital. “I said, ‘What would the IDF have to do with a conference on antisemitism?’”
Cohen said the hotel did not answer. The general manager told him she would need to consult the hotel’s owners before deciding whether the event could proceed.
On May 8, one day after the meeting, organizers received an email stating that the hotel could not accommodate their “event,” Cohen said. Two to three days after the May 7 meeting, organizers followed up by asking whether the approximately 70 rooms reserved for delegates remained available.
The hotel then informed them that the rooms were no longer available and claimed they had automatically been released one week before the meeting, according to Cohen. He said the hotel never mentioned that during the discussion with management.
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DUBLIN, IRELAND – MAY 18: Pro-Palestinian activists from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by members of left-wing parties including People Before Profit and the Socialist Party and students, participate in the National March for Palestine from the Garden of Remembrance to O’Connell Street and Leinster House, on May 18, 2024, in Dublin, Ireland. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Why would you hold a meeting seven days after the rooms had been canceled without mentioning them?” Cohen said. “To my mind, that excuse was a retrospective excuse.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told Fox News Digital, “If the reports from Dublin are accurate, this is a disgraceful example of the very antisemitism the conference was organized to combat.”
“Seventy rooms had been booked. Seventy people had been welcomed as guests,” Cohen said during an Oct. 13 address at Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs. “The only thing that changed was what they were understood to be.”
The experience was personal for Cohen, who said he had attended meetings, New Year’s Eve celebrations and his mother’s birthdays at the hotel through her 93rd birthday.
“How quickly does the word ‘Jewish’ change a conversation?” Cohen asked during his address.
The disputed hotel cancellation is the latest episode to raise concerns among Jewish leaders about antisemitic discrimination in Ireland. The country has no official state mechanism dedicated to tracking antisemitic incidents, leaving community organizations to document cases and prompting concerns that many experiences are never formally recorded.
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Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin is scheduled to meet with President Trump Tuesday. (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
Ireland’s Jewish community numbers only about 2,200 people. Against that backdrop, the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland recorded 143 self-reported antisemitic incidents through its first six-month reporting initiative, including verbal abuse, threats, vandalism and discrimination. The council cautioned that the findings represent only a partial picture because antisemitism is often underreported.
Cohen said the atmosphere for Ireland’s small Jewish community has deteriorated since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, describing the wider climate facing Jewish and Israeli people in Ireland as “ambient antisemitism.”
Fox News Digital sent questions to the Irish government asking whether it condemns the hotel’s reported actions and whether any review or investigation is being considered. The office of Prime Minister Micheál Martin, the government departments responsible for foreign affairs and justice, and the Irish Embassy in Washington, D.C., were contacted for comment. None had responded at the time of publication.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital in September, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said, “We have no toleration for antisemitism, none.”
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Palestinian, EU, Ukrainian and Irish flags flutter, after Ireland has announced it will recognize the Palestinian state, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, outside Leinster House in Dublin, Ireland, May 28, 2024. (REUTERS/Damien Eagers)
“It’s all around us,” Cohen told Fox News Digital. “If you say you’re Israeli, you may not get into certain places. The narrative is so one-sided.”
When Fox News Digital reached the Herbert Park Hotel directly by phone and asked about Cohen’s account, the decision to reject the event and the subsequent release of approximately 70 rooms, a hotel representative responded, “No comment.”
Cohen said the hotel’s management should speak directly with Jewish community representatives and receive training on contemporary antisemitism.
“They need training on what antisemitism is,” Cohen told Fox News Digital. “They need to be cognizant of the fact they are promoting antisemitism. They need to understand why they’re so wrong.”
Cohen said several Irish lawmakers and civil servants contacted him personally after his Oct. 13 address, though he had not seen a broader public condemnation from the Irish government.
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“I, like most people, don’t want to be in a place where I’m not wanted,” Cohen said.
Fox News Digital also reached out to the owners of the hotel through its corporate entity but did not receive a response by the time of publication.