Irish President attended service where cleric accused Israelis of deploying ‘master race’ theory

An Anglican cleric accused Israel of deploying a “master race” theory in a sermon to a high-profile audience that included the Irish president.

Canon David Oxley was accused of “hijacking” the solemn Remembrance Sunday event at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin with a diatribe in which he also suggested Israelis believe themselves to be intrinsically more valuable than “other” groups.

“Then the elimination of others follows as a matter of course because they don’t count,” Oxley said.

Israel had committed the “horrible blasphemy of the master race in action”, he added.

In addition to Irish President Michael Higgins, dignitaries at the service included the Lord Mayor of Dublin James Geoghegan, Minister Darragh O’Brien, and representatives of the main political parties, as well as former and current service men and women.

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Ireland said Oxley’s comments were a “libel against the state of Israel” and accused him of “hijacking” the Remembrance Sunday service.

The spokesperson said the diatribe was “divorced from reality” and “wilfully ignored the complexities of the Middle East.”

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI) called for the church to distance itself from Oxley’s “inflammatory rhetoric”.

JRCI chair, Maurice Cohen, told the JC: “It is profoundly distressing to our Irish Jewish community to see such a hateful sermon be delivered”.

Oxley suggested Israelis and Jews have “a supremacist ideology”, according to Cohen, which the Jewish leader said was "a dangerous and harmful generalisation that promotes age-old antisemitic stereotypes.”

Cohen said the canon’s language “dehumanises the Jewish community, falsely portraying them as inherently oppressive and cruel, without regard for the complexities of the region's ongoing conflict or the defensive measures taken by Israel.

“Honouring the fallen should be a time for unity and reflection, not for fostering division.”

Speaking to the packed cathedral, Oxley claimed that soldiers memorialised on Remembrance Sunday “did cruelties as well as braveries” and “war was ugly,” according to an extensive report on his comments published on the dioceses’ website.

He listed what he claimed was a litany of violent acts committed by the Israel Defence Forces. Israel, he said, had a “policy of targeting schools and hospitals and mosques” and was intentionally starving Gazans.

“Going back again and again to bomb people who have already been deprived of home and happiness and everything else – is such cruelty necessary?” the canon asked.

Oxley said this behaviour “dehumanised the aggressor as well as the victim” and suggested Israel had consistently refused to take responsibility for its violent actions.

“And what of the constant refusal to take responsibility? The unending mantra of the IDF: This is the fault of Hamas. But it is your hands that have pulled the trigger, that have dropped the bomb that took that child’s legs, that woman’s life, that family’s home.”

While Oxley noted the October 7 attack committed by Hamas in southern Israel was “a deliberate cruelty”, he added: “Is it inevitable that the abused should become abusers in their turn?”

He asked if it was possible “to break the evil chain of inheritance - would the victim of abuse become an abuser?”

The church leader repeatedly referred to the Hebrew word for peace, shalom: “We need that vision of a world where all have shalom, for the sake of the race and the planet.”

He said that the “desolation and destruction” in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank was antithetical to shalom.

Oxley went on to refer with “pride” to the fractious relation between the Irish and Israeli governments: “It is a matter of some national pride that Ireland has drawn Israeli ire on our own Oireachtas [Parliament], for our upholding of the vision of shalom and justice for all, including the people of Palestine.”

Israel’s ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, was recalled after the Irish Government announced its decision to recognise Palestine - a move that Israel Katz, then foreign minister, said rewarded terrorism.

President Higgins has also sparked controversy over his correspondence with the Islamic Republic of Iran. He penned a gushing letter to President Masoud Pezeshkian offering “condolences” for the death of President Raisi - also known as the “Butcher of Tehran”.

The Israeli embassy spokesperson said that Oxley’s comments should be seen in the context of growing anti-Israel activism and antisemitism in Ireland: “In the past year, we have seen a troubling rise in anti-Israel discourse in Ireland, which has often mutated into antisemitism and the delegitimisation of Israel.

“Antisemitism is being permitted to manifest openly now, largely in part due to vitriolic rhetoric against Israel which is, to an astonishing degree, based on disinformation, misinformation and deliberate distortion of facts and truth,” the spokesperson added, referring to a recent report into Irish school textbooks which were found to have demonised Israel and Jews.

The Irish President’s Office told the JC: “At the invitation of the Royal British Legion, President Higgins attended the Annual Service of Remembrance at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin on Remembrance Sunday, 10 November.

“This event is attended by the President of Ireland each year, where the President lays a wreath in remembrance of all those who have died in war. The President’s presence at the event serves as an official acknowledgement, in particular, of the memory of the Irish men and women who lost their lives in the Great Wars of the twentieth century.

“As you will appreciate, the presence of the President at this annual event is of particular importance in the context of the different political traditions on the island of Ireland.”

The JC sought comment from the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough.