As I noted in a very brief update to yesterday’s post about the Holocaust Eduction Trust Ireland (HETI), the Jerusalem Post this morning is reporting that they have “backed down” over their decision to ban the Master of Ceremonies at the next Holocaust Memorial ceremony from mentioning Israel. JPost wrote under the headline:
Irish back down in face of anger over decision not to mention Israel at Holocaust ceremony
and included this sentence:
In response to the public outcry, Cassells issued a press release backtracking on the policy and stating that he had “reassured the Jewish community in Ireland that Israel will be referred to in Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations.”
The JPost story includes a number of quotes from other interested parties who have not been re-assured including this one.
Cassells confirmed that Israeli Ambassador Boaz Moda’i would be present at the event.
Speaking with the Post on Sunday, the chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, Maurice Cohen, denied having received any such assurances from Cassells, despite having written to him directly over two weeks ago regarding the matter. He stated that HETI had placed a small item in a local newsletter addressing the issue, but nobody at his organization, which represents Ireland’s tiny community of perhaps 2,000 Jews, had been contacted directly.
I reached out to HETI for the full Press Release but have not had an answer. However I was sent the following from another source and I believe it is exactly what was sent to the Jerusalem Post and I’m publishing it in full. You are free to join me in being underwhelmed.
I can’t quite read into that a full retraction of those letters from Peter Cassells to Yanky Facher (the long time MC of the event) banning him from mentioning Israel and then notifying him he is to be replaced.
