Campaigners slam Dublin council's decision to suspend plans to rename Herzog park

Dublin City Council has come under fire after suspending plans to remove the name of a former Israeli president from a public park.

The Irish capital's governing body on Monday was scheduled to debate a proposal to rename Herzog Park, named after Chaim Herzog, who was born in Belfast in Northern Ireland and grew up in Dublin before serving as Israeli president between 1983 and 1993. 

The council was to also hold a consultation process on choosing a new name.

However, council chief executive Richard Shakespeare said on Sunday he was proposing to withdraw the item from Monday’s agenda and refer it back to the commemorations committee, saying that correct legislative procedures had not been followed.

The decision came after pushback - from both the Irish government and Israeli leaders - over the weekend.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who is also the son of Chaim, slammed the move to rename the park as “shameful and disgraceful”.

Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntree said that "remov(ing) the name of an Irish Jewish man has nothing to do with" Israel’s "policy and actions in Gaza and the West Bank". 

Prime Minister Micheal Martin and Deputy Prime Minister Simon Harris also urged the withdrawal of the motion to rename the park.

“The proposal is a denial of our history and will without any doubt be seen as antisemitic” the premier said on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

The proposal to rename Herzog Park should be withdrawn in its entirety and not proceeded with. pic.twitter.com/2DmscslEOn

— Micheál Martin (@MichealMartinTD) November 30, 2025

But many online disagreed with the arguments and framing from these politicians.

"Who will see this move as anti-Semitic... the government of Israel?" Irish journalist and political activist David Cronin asked Martin on X. 

"Why are you so worried about offending a state carrying out a genocide?"

Several users also argued that Herzog was not a neutral symbol of the Irish Jewish community, pointing out that he was a member of the underground Zionist paramilitary organisation, Haganah, which later became the Israeli army. 

Haganah, together with Zionist militias Irgun and Lehi, was responsible for mass atrocities and massacres in Palestinian villages and bombings in the years leading up to, and during the 1948 Nakba. 

Herzog was also the first Israeli governor of the occupied Palestinian territories and took credit for bulldozing and depopulating the Mughrabi Quarter of East Jerusalem - which he referred to as a "toilet" - in 1967. 

Herzog was a "colonial governor responsible for... ethnic cleansing," said one user, adding that "No park in Ireland - or anywhere - should bear his name".

Dublin City Councillor Conor Reddy argued that Israel's genocide in Gaza cannot be viewed as distinct from Zionism or the colonisation of Palestine in the 20th century. 

"Denaming Herzog Park is about recognising historic crimes and placing ourselves on the right side of history," he continued. 

You can't decouple Genocide in Gaza+ ethnic cleansing today from Zionism or the colonisation of Palestine over the 20th century. Genocide is an extension of logic of zionism

Denaming Herzog Park is about recognising historic crimes+ placing ourselves on the right side of history

— Cllr Conor Reddy 🇵🇸 (@ConorReddy95) December 1, 2025

Some pro-Palestinian advocates in Ireland planned for a solidarity demonstration on Monday to protest the council’s decision, which they criticised as “misinformed, disproportionate and bizarre”. 

The initial renaming plan followed a majority agreement last July by members of the Dublin City Council’s Commemorations and Naming Committee, which included councillors from Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, parties of the governing coalition - that the name “Herzog” should be removed from the park.

Pro-Palestinian campaigners had started calling for the park to be renamed in early 2024. Many said the park should honour Hind Rajab, the six-year-old girl who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024 after pleading with emergency services to rescue her.