Dublin City Council announced earlier this week that it has decided to remove the name of Chaim Herzog, the sixth president of the State of Israel, from a park in the Rathgar neighborhood.
While the council has yet to choose a new name, pro-Palestinian activists in Ireland are campaigning to see the name changed to ‘Free Palestine Park.’
The proposal to change the name was first adopted by the South East Asian Committee in December last year.
The park was set out in 1985 by the Parks Department of Dublin Corporation. It was then known as Orwell Quarry Park, Dublin City Council wrote. It was renamed in 1995, the year of the tri-millennium of Jerusalem, in honour of Chaim Herzog, the then-president of Israel, whose father was the Irish chief rabbi.
Former Irish justice minister Alan Shatter criticized the move on social media, writing, “Dublin City Council has now gone full on Nazi & a committee of the Council has determined it should erase Jewish/Irish history. Herzog Park in Rathgar is named after Chaim Herzog, Israel’s 6th President, brought up in Dublin by his father, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, a friend of Eamon De Valera, who was Chief Rabbi of Ireland & Israel’s first Chief Rabbi. A committee of the Council on 24th November 2025 determined to rename the Park, which is adjacent to Ireland’s only Jewish Primary & Secondary School. Some councillors want the Park renamed ‘Free Palestine Park.’
Ireland’s Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder also condemned the decision, saying that “Herzog Park is more than a name on a sign. For those who live nearby, and especially for the neighbouring Jewish families and schools, it’s a place filled with memory, and an important reminder that our community has deep roots in Dublin.
The European Jewish Congress also condemned the decision, with the organization’s Executive Vice President Raya Kalenova saying that “To single out an Irish-Jewish figure for removal from the public space sends an unmistakably harmful message, that Jewish heritage is conditional, vulnerable and disposable.”
