Irish taoiseach Micheál Martin has said comments made by the Israel Football Association about Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson are “unacceptable” and “should be withdrawn”. Martin spoke to reporters in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly, after the Football Association of Ireland declined to respond to the Israel FA’s message.
The dispute stems from remarks Hallgrimsson made last week, when he said: “We’re not playing with genocide, we’re playing against genocide. We’re playing against Israel, we’re not playing with Israel.” On Monday, the Israel FA posted a message on X, saying: “We have contributed to the world and humanity in countless fields, earning an impressive number of Nobel Prizes along the way. Unfortunately, we have not yet found a cure for stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy displayed by @IrelandFootball team coach. We’re not playing with ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity, We’re playing against the coach who embodies them.”
Martin’s response was firm. “They are unacceptable remarks and should be withdrawn,” he said. He went on to place the manager’s words in a wider context, saying: “We’re very clear and I think [UN secretary-general] Antonio Guterres said it again this morning, he has never in his lifetime seen the level and scale of death and destruction as he witnessed in terms of the Israeli government’s war on Gaza in the aftermath of the horrific Hamas attack preceding the war. Our manager is saying the exact same thing.” He added: “Israel can’t keep denying what the world knows and what the world understands.”
The exchange comes with the two teams due to meet twice inside a week in the Nations League. Israel’s ‘home’ fixture is being staged in Debrecen, Hungary on Sunday, while the return game will also be played at a neutral venue, in Backa Topola, Serbia on 4 October.
There has been growing domestic pressure in Ireland over the fixtures. Calls for a boycott have increased, and a protest was held at the Republic of Ireland team hotel in Dublin on Monday. It followed an open letter from the Irish Sport for Palestine Group, signed by more than 160 Irish sportspeople, urging the FAI to withdraw from the matches because of the situation in Gaza. Uefa rejected a request to keep the Republic of Ireland and Israel separate, the FAI has said.
The background to the tension is the war in Gaza. The armed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. In response, Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza, during which more than 73,000 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN. Israel has repeatedly denied that it has committed genocide, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity, saying its military operations in Gaza have been conducted in self-defence and in accordance with international law.