An Irish music, arts and wellness festival has announced that anyone currently serving or who has previously served in the Israel Defense Forces will be barred from attending.
Rewild festival, held in County Kerry, introduced the blanket ban following an online campaign against the planned participation of an Israeli citizen who previously served in the IDF.
Rewild festival announced that anyone currently serving or who has previously served in the Israel Defense Forces will be barred from attending
(Photo: Shutterstock)
In a statement, organizers said they stood “in solidarity with the Palestinian people” and declared that current or former members of what they called the “Israeli Occupation Forces” were not welcome and would not be permitted to participate.
The use of the term “IOF” instead of IDF is commonly associated with anti-Israel activists.
According to Irish media reports, festival organizers initially said the Israeli would be allowed to take part. They later reversed that position after artists and suppliers threatened to withdraw from the event.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism condemned the decision as “xenophobia disguised as progressivism,” noting that the festival presents itself as an inclusive space while excluding Israelis who completed mandatory military service.
Ireland’s chief rabbi, Yoni Wieder, also sharply criticized the move, saying the organizers’ use of the term “IOF” reflected their ideological position.
Wieder said Israel maintains compulsory military service because it faces security threats from terrorist groups committed to its destruction.
He argued that the decision reflected a wider trend in Ireland in which Jews increasingly feel that their place in society is conditional on having no meaningful connection to Israel.
Wieder cited protests outside Jewish community events, calls to rename sites with Jewish associations and reported incidents of harassment or assault targeting Hebrew speakers.
The controversy comes amid a separate dispute within Ireland’s Jewish community.
Twenty-one Jewish signatories issued a protest letter against the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland after it sponsored an online workshop titled “Anti-Zionism as the New Antisemitism.”
The signatories argued that the council did not represent all Irish Jews, including anti-Zionist Jews, and said opposition to Zionism should not automatically be equated with antisemitism.
The council responded that the workshop was intended to help Jews address cases in which anti-Zionist rhetoric serves as a cover for hostility toward Jewish people.
It said Zionism, in its view, means support for the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their historic homeland and does not require support for every policy of the Israeli government.
Wieder likewise said criticism of the Israeli government is not inherently antisemitic, but argued that anti-Zionist rhetoric has increasingly been used in Ireland to justify hostility toward Jews.