I never thought I’d write a blog about a hotel, but in the case of the Herbert Park Hotel I’ll make an exception. I’ve stayed in it overnight on a number of occasions, and it’s pricey enough. It’s in Ballsbridge in Dublin (shut up, Virginia) and as the name suggests borders on Herbert Park.
It’s in the news (sort of) because it cancelled a booking of 70 rooms. That’s no small potatoes the might have collected for the service, but having checked on the organisation doing the booking, it cancelled.
Maurice Cohen, who is chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, said it took a booking of 70 rooms for delegates to Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antiemitism (SECCA). The World Jewish Congress arranged the meeting. Cohen says that the hotel cancelled the booking after learning the purpose of the visit. Management asked if the gathering wa connected to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). The manager’s attitude became “tense”, Cohen says, when he heard that the delegates were Jewish leaders. Cohen figures this cancelling of rooms was a case of antisemitism. He didn’t , apparently, answer the question posed and explain the organisation’s links with Israel or the IDF.
So let me try. The World Jewish Conference has clear connections with Israel. It supports Israel publicly and says it “will always stand with Israel as one Jewish family.” It also allows that criticism of Israeli policies can be legitimate.
Well now. Mr Cohen doesn’t appear to have answered the question about the IDF, which slaughtered and continues to slaughter tens of thousands of Palestinians. The prime minister of Israel has been judged a war criminal. So Mr Cohen would appear to have a ‘My country right or wrong’ attitude to Israel, and in this case it’s wrong, wrong, wrong. Genocidal, even.
I’ve tried to find out what the hotel was told when Mr Cohen responded to the IDF connection question. As reported , he appears to have ducked giving an answer. However, the organisation is on record as having given a Torah scroll to IDF members at the Western Wall in 2011 and its leaders meet senior IDF officers during briefings.
Alan Shatter, Ireland’s former Justice Minister, has said he would like to know who made the decision and why. Here’s one possible answer, Alan: the organisation stands in support of Israel through thick and thin, and Israel has been guilty of the most nightmarish of crimes, and continues to do so openly. That enough for you?
My hat is off to the Herbert Park Hotel. Oh that we had more institutions prepared to put their money where their mouth is.
Very good jude