President Michael D Higgins has said that he has strongly condemned anti-Semitism "again and again" throughout his career and he has rejected a call to withdraw from giving the keynote speech at next weeks National Holocaust Memorial Day.
His comments, in a statement to RTÉ News, were in response to an article in a Sunday newspaper in which the outgoing Israeli Ambassador to Ireland said the president should not attend as his previous comments were "anti-Israeli".
The statement from Áras an Uachtaráin said: "President Higgins statements will show, through this work in politics and as President, that he has again and again strongly condemned antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism."
It went on to say the President's previous statements included "the clear suggestion that any targeting of Jewish or Israeli people in Ireland is completely wrong and should be addressed immediately by the State and non-State actors".
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, the outgoing Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, accused President Higgins of helping to nurture an "anti-Israeli atmosphere" and she said he had helped to "foster antisemitism".
Ms Erlich said he should reconsider speaking at next Sunday's event at the Mansion House in Dublin.
She said the president has many opportunities to speak and echo his opinions but that National Holocaust Memorial Day should be "something solemn, focusing on Holocaust remembrance, Holocaust education, and preventing antisemitism from rising again".
The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland said it is the President's duty to ensure Holocaust Memorial Day remains a solemn event and an occasion of redemption in the eyes of the community.
Chair Maurice Cohen told RTÉ News he hopes the President's actions will "affirm a deep respect for the memory of the victims of the Holocaust".
He went on to say that "under the current circumstances many members of the Irish Jewish community feel they cannot attend next Sunday" while he said those involved in the proceedings will choose to go.
Mr Cohen said although he was grateful for the President's previous statements, he wished to "express concern that (the president's) continued public comments often present a one-sided view of the conflict".
He said it was his understanding that Ambassador Erlich would be out of the country prior to next Sunday's event and will therefore not be attending.
This will be the seventh time President Higgins has accepted an invitation and spoken at the event, which is organised by Holocaust Education Ireland and which will take place on 26 January.
Last week, senior members of the Irish-Jewish community confirmed they will attend the ceremony, despite some criticism of President Higgins being invited to be the keynote speaker.
The event will mark 80 years since the end of World War II and remember all those who perished in the Holocaust.
Meanwhile, TDs have agreed that President Higgins should attend the memorial event and deliver the speech.
Independent TD Marian Harkin and Sinn Féin's David Cullinane both agreed that he should do so.
Fine Gael's Neale Richmond told RTÉ's The Week In Politics that President Higgins as head of State should speak and should not stay away.
"I think it's really important that he speaks at it, and sends out a clear message that the legacy of the Holocaust will never be repeated and that those from a Jewish background here in in Ireland are welcome and are safe here and this is their home."
Rory Hearne, Social Democrats TD, said that the President has been a really strong voice on peace in Gaza, and hopefully that will continue.
He added he felt that what the outgoing Israeli Ambassador and others have been saying in terms of a criticism of antisemitism in Ireland is just a deflection away from "the genocidal war that they are doing to the people of Gaza".
