Israeli writer targeted for massive hate mail from Ireland after column

Wrote Irish schoolboys collecting for Palestine made anti-Semitic remarks

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A Jerusalem Post columnist has said she has been targeted for vicious anti-Semitic mail from Ireland after writing about anti-Jewish comments she heard in County Kerry.

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A Jerusalem Post columnist has said she has been targeted for vicious  anti-Semitic mail from Ireland after writing about anti-Jewish comments she heard in County Kerry.

Sarah Hoenig was on a visit to Cahirsiveen in Kerry when she met school boys collecting for Palestinian rights on behalf of the Third World agency Trocaire.

She wrote that they told her they hated Jews, that they had killed Jesus and that their fundraising for Palestine was endorsed by the local school.

She described meeting the three young boys collecting for Palestine with a banner that said ‘Free Palestine.’ She asked “Free Palestine from whom?”

She wrote “The... trio’s swift answer was unambiguous: “The Jews.”

I pressed on: “Do you know where your money would go? “The boys: “To plant olive trees.”

“Are you sure,” I continued, as kindly-looking little old ladies generously opened their purses and dropped coins and bills in the collection box, “that this money wouldn’t fund terrorists and murderers?”

Their retort threw me for a loop: “What do you have against Palestinians? What have they done to you? They are only against Jews. Jews are evil.”

She now claims she has been a target of vicious anti-Semitic mail from Ireland as a result of her column.

She told the Irish Independent that Irish people need to "realize the sentiments that run rampant in segments of their communities."

She said she had received hundreds of pieces of hate mail.

The Independent stated she traced one of the emails sent to her to an IP address in Lusk, Co Dublin.

“The author, who calls himself 'Charles', writes: "Your (sic) a bag of filth. I just read about your recent escapades in Cahersiveen, I just wish the Nazi's (sic) were still around to deal with scum like you."

The principal of the school, John O'Connor, has denied her claims and said the boys never used the language she said they did..

Ms Honig stated she was "deeply saddened" at the "lack of comprehension" about Israel in Ireland.

"Clearly, I don't label the Irish or residents of Cahersiveen as anti-Semites. I call them 'very decent folks' and I call the indecency I encountered 'unwitting'," she told the Irish Independent.

"It was certainly not to tar Cahersiveen residents as anti-Semitic.”
 

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