Former Irish president Mary Robinson has criticized "certain elements" of the Jewish community of bullying.

Robinson was responding to attacks that were made on her after she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama earlier this month.

"There's a lot of bullying by certain elements of the Jewish community," she told RTE Radio in Ireland.

"They bully people who try to address the severe situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Archbishop Desmond Tutu gets the same criticism."

President Obama came under fire from several pro-Israeli groups for awarding Robinson with the Medal.

They said she should not receive the honor because they claimed she was anti-Semite.

Robinson hit back at the allegations describing them as "totally without foundation."

"It's totally without foundation but when stuff is out on the Internet, I'm not quite sure what you can do," Robinson said adding that she had never supported any anti-Semitism.