Cllr Punam Rane withdrew her comments in a post on X this morning after yesterday being forced to clarify her remarks during a debate.
The council meeting was discussing a motion on the Occupied Territories Bill, which seeks to impose a complete ban on the import of goods and services produced in illegal settlements, including from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“I completely withdraw my comments made at last night’s city council meeting in relation to a motion on the Occupied Territories Bill. It was wrong and I fully apologise for it,” she said in a post on X today.
Councillor apologises after claiming ‘entire US economy is ruled by Jews’ at Dublin City council meeting
At the meeting last night, Cllr Rane spoke about there previously being “two superpowers”, the US and the USSR.
“Then the USSR broke up and became just Russia, things started falling apart and then it emerged just one superpower, that’s America,” she said.
“But today, that superpower is no more a superpower because you have China cropping up on the other side. But what they don’t stand for is that nobody is taking a stance. USA or America should have taken a stance.”
She said how the US cannot take a stance on Palestine as the “entire US economy today is ruled by Jews”.
“But how many of you know, the entire US economy today is ruled by the Jews, by Israel. They will never be able to take a stance.
“The elections in November, it will cripple the whole US economy if they take a stance and therefore they are afraid of taking a stance. That’ll never happen unless and until the global powers that are emerging take a stance themselves and make US take a stance.”
People Before Profit Cllr Conor Reddy asked her to “clarify remarks on Jews controlling the American economy”.
“I think that’s tremendously unhelpful, we’re all here in solidarity with Palestine,” he said.
“Zionism is a complete fallacy, it’s wrong and I think we all stand against anti-semetism and it would be helpful if she could withdraw that particular use of words.”
Cllr Rane then clarified her comments and said the US economy is ruled by Israelis.
She said: “I didn’t actually mean a particular community but I am just saying, today, the US economy is ruled by the Israelis. It’s not wrong. They have worked hard for it.
“The US is not enabled to take a stance today because their financial dependency, that’s all I am saying.”
Sinn Féin Cllr Dáithi Doolan said Councillors should be “careful with our language”.
“We need to be careful with our language. We should not be using inflammatory language and identifying one religious group over another is inflammatory. And we shouldn’t be isolating one group in the US above anybody else,” he said.
He said the “sole responsibility” for arming Israel “lies with the politicians in Washington” and “not anyone one particular group or sect”.
