Israeli PM slams Dublin mayor’s visit to Palestine

By Mustafa Deveci

JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the mayor of Dublin, Ireland Thursday over his recent visit to Palestine.

Dublin Lord Mayor Micheal Mac Donncha “should be ashamed of himself for attending an anti-Israel conference in Ramallah”, Netanyahu said in a post on his Facebook account.

The conference, held Wednesday, focused on the disputed status of Jerusalem.

Donncha, who is banned from entering Israel for supporting the Palestinian cause, managed to slip through immigration at Tel Aviv airport because authorities misspelled his name on the order barring his entry.

Ireland’s ambassador to Israel was summoned by Israel’s Foreign Ministry to protest Donccha’s attendance of the event.

Earlier in the week, the Dublin City Council passed a resolution calling on Ireland’s government to expel the Israeli ambassador over the recent killings of Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip.

At least 31 Palestinians have been killed by cross-border gunfire by the Israeli army since March 30 when peaceful rallies began along the Gaza Strip’s roughly 45-kilometer eastern border with Israel.

Demonstrators are demanding that Palestinian refugees be given the “right of return” to their towns and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948.

The rallies are part of a six-week-long demonstration that will culminate on May 15. That day will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe".