![\"\u05e7\u05e0\u05d9](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/rkmJbEpOMx_0_0_1838_2361_0_x-large.jpg\" "\\"Kenny")
<\/a><\/p>\nKenny Cunningham <\/p>\n
(Photo: Vladimir Rys\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Israel and Ireland are scheduled to meet twice in the coming weeks. The first match will take place on September 27 in Debrecen, Hungary, while Ireland\u2019s home fixture, originally set for Dublin, has been relocated to Ba\u010dka Topola in Serbia on October 4 and will be played without spectators.<\/p>\n
The Football Association of Ireland previously cited \u201coperational challenges that may impact the staging of the fixture\u201d in explaining the decision.<\/p>\n
Cunningham, who captained Ireland during his playing career and faced Israel in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, said Ireland\u2019s position toward Israel and the Palestinian issue was already well understood and that moving the match would do little to change the debate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a perception of how the Irish people feel about Israel, Israeli foreign policy and the Palestinian issue. That\u2019s already out there,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all know where people stand, so I don\u2019t feel that canceling the game advances that debate.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he would have preferred to see the Israeli national team take the field at Dublin\u2019s Aviva Stadium and hear its anthem treated with respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be good to see the Israeli national team walk out onto the pitch at the Aviva,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cI think it would have been good to hear the Israeli national anthem respected inside the Aviva, because for me that would have sent a message, perhaps from the Irish people to Israelis who have also suffered during this conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a human level, we\u2019re actually together here,\u201d he added. \u201cThere are politicians making decisions around this issue, but really, between Israelis and Irish people, there is a degree of understanding on a human level about what has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham argued that Irish supporters could recognize what Israelis experienced on October 7 without that being interpreted as support for the Israeli government or its conduct of the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll respect your national anthem for those reasons. We\u2019ll respect what you went through on October 7, the people you lost in horrific circumstances, which led to this current phase of the conflict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to divisions within Israeli society, saying some Israeli players may themselves oppose their government\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish public can show respect to Israelis, some of whom may even agree to some extent with the views of the Irish people,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cMaybe some of the Israeli players are disgusted with their government and the conflict. It\u2019s complicated, but I think the game should have been played in Dublin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cunningham acknowledged that he did not have an answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but said removing the match from Ireland was not a constructive step.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure what the answer is to the conflict, but I don\u2019t think stopping the Israelis from playing a game in Dublin, or even canceling the game, advances anything in a positive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think the games should go ahead, and I think the home game should have been played in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-609501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}