Belfast Plaque Marking Chaim Herzog’s Birthplace Removed After Anti-Semitic Attacks
A marker commemorating the Belfast birthplace of the late Israeli president Chaim Herzog was removed following several anti-Semitic attacks.
The blue plaque honoring Herzog, Israel’s president from 1983 to 1993, was taken down in the Irish capital out of concern for the safety of those living nearby, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
“Attacks have included the scrawling of anti-Israeli graffiti on the building and items being thrown at the plaque and the house,” Brian Kingston, a local official, told the Telegraph. “Recently some youths were stopped in the process of trying to remove the plaque with a crowbar.”
The removal of the plaque, which was mounted in 1998, came a month after a north Belfast synagogue was vandalized.
Born in 1918, Herzog immigrated to British Mandate Palestine in 1935 and served in the Haganah, later fighting in Israel’s War of Independence. He also fought in the British army during Word War II.
Before being elected president, he served as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and as a Knesset member. He died in 1997.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO