Simon Harris said the comments at a council meeting by Dublin councillor Punam Rane “were utterly wrong, absolutely offensive, entirely inappropriate, and are fully condemned by me”.
He added: “We have established a disciplinary process. That needs to be swift and it needs to be robust.”
Asked if Ms Rane should consider her position, given disciplinary action is being taken internally by the party, Mr Harris said: “I think I’ve made my views very clear with my comments there. To say any more than that would cut across that disciplinary process.
“But to be clear, I want it to be swift and I want it to be robust. The comments were utterly wrong, utterly offensive, and entirely in appropriate.
“I want the disciplinary process to be able to run its course. It is important that I don’t go across that, in terms of due process. But the comments caused a lot of offence to a lot of people, and I find them offensive too.”
Asked if he was embarrassed that the comments were made hours before he got on a plane to go to America, Mr Harris confirmed: “I’m annoyed by the comments, extremely annoyed.
“I think the comments were wrong, inappropriate, and that’s why there is a swift disciplinary process in place.”
Mr Rane apologised after saying during a debate on a motion to back the Occupied Territories Bill, which would impose sanctions against goods and businesses from illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, that “the entire US economy is ruled by the Jews, by Israel”.
The Government has repeatedly delayed enacting the legislation, which has been passed by both the Dáil and the Seanad.
At the meeting, 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 the US could not take a stance on Palestine because 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 antisemitism and it would be helpful if she could withdraw that particular use of words.”
Cllr Rane then tried to clarify her comments and said the US economy was 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”.
Ms Rane apologised for her comments the following day in a post on X, saying: “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.”
