Dublin hotel ‘cancelled 70-room booking for antisemitism conference delegates’

He explained how the hotel allegedly reacted at a reception hosted by Ireland’s Foreign Ministry to mark the opening of a meeting of the Special Envoys and Coordinators Combating Antisemitism (SECCA), an international network supported by the World Jewish Congress and the European Commission.

In an address shared with the JC, Cohen described a change in the manager’s demeanour after he explained the conference’s objectives. He said she indicated that she would need to consult the hotel’s owners before confirming whether the delegates could stay.

“We were talking about a conference in Dublin on antisemitism, attended by Jewish community representatives, diplomats, civil servants and government officials. Nothing I had said had anything whatsoever to do with the Israeli army, yet somehow that was where the conversation had gone. Then came something even more disturbing.

“A day or so later the answer came back: We could not.”

He said there is an “uncomfortable irony in organising an international conference to discuss antisemitism and finding that, before the conference has even begun, you have already encountered something that forces you to ask exactly the questions the conference was created to address.”

The delegates were subsequently accommodated at another hotel in Dublin, and the conference proceeded as planned.

The Herbert Park Hotel has not yet commented on the allegations after being approached by the JC.

The SECCA meeting took place while Ireland held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Organisers intended the gathering to reinforce the importance of combating antisemitism and Ireland’s commitment to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

The three-day programme included discussions with senior officials, a meeting with Ireland’s head of government, Micheál Martin, and visits to the European offices of TikTok and Meta.

Yoni Wieder, chief rabbi of Ireland, told the JC the hotel’s decision, if true, was “particularly disappointing” given the hotel’s previous familiarity with Jewish guests.

“To the best of my knowledge, there's never been any problem in the past, so that makes this particularly disappointing coming from the Herbert.

“I'd be very interested to know who actually made the decision to cancel the booking, and why. It’s certainly possible that they were worried about attracting controversy or protests outside the hotel, rather than having an objection to the conference themselves. But that's just my own speculation, and I simply don't know. And regardless, that’s still not an excuse.

“If things happened as reported, then it's a downright disgrace. And how ironic is it that delegates should come to Dublin for a conference on combating antisemitism, only to learn that their original hotel accommodation had been cancelled, apparently because of the very nature of the conference they were attending.

“Sadly, these things don't come as much of a surprise anymore.”

The European Jewish Congress also weighed into the controversy, writing on X: “This is deeply disturbing. That a hotel would cancel accommodation for participants in a conference dedicated to combating antisemitism, while raising questions about supposed links to the Israeli military, reflects precisely the kind of prejudice and suspicion that such gatherings seek to confront.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said: “The Irish government cannot use the fight against antisemitism as a diplomatic PR exercise while failing to confront it at home.”