The Israeli ambassador to Ireland will speak about the links between the Shoah and Israel at future Holocaust Memorial Days, it was announced this week.

The embassy in Dublin said that, following a meeting with Holocaust Educational Trust Ireland (HETI), it was decided that ambassador Boaz Modai “will deliver an address in which the clear connection between the Shoah of the Jews during World War Two and the State of Israel will be stated”.

A senior source at the embassy said that this represented a significant shift from previous years, in which the ambassador read only a prepared statement that did not mention Israel.

The move follows a row in Ireland after HETI instructed the master of ceremonies at Memorial Day not to refer to Israel.

An embassy spokesperson said HETI’s instructions to the MC were not an issue for Israel’s diplomats to deal with.

He said: “That wasn’t part of the discussion in the meeting.

“We regard those arrangements as an internal matter for the committee. We regard the issue closed and resolved.”