The President of Ireland Michael D Higgins has rejected a call to withdraw from giving a speech at a Holocaust Memorial Day event.

This follows an interview with the Irish Independent in which the out-going Ambassador of Israel to Ireland called for Higgins not to attend the event.

Dana Erlich claimed Higgins had helped nurture an “anti-Israeli atmosphere” in Ireland.

A statement on behalf of the president said he had strongly condemned antisemitism “again and again” throughout his career.

Last month, Israel’s foreign minister announced that the country’s embassy in Dublin would close over “the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government”.

This followed the recognition of Palestine by Ireland, along with Norway and Spain, in May last year.

This will be the seventh time Higgins has accepted an invitation and spoken at the event organised by Holocaust Education Ireland, which takes place on 26 January.

Erlich said the president should reconsider speaking at next Sunday’s event at the Mansion House in Dublin.

She said he has many opportunities to speak and echo his opinions, but that the National Holocaust Memorial Day should be “something solemn, focusing on Holocaust remembrance, Holocaust education, and preventing antisemitism from rising again”.

Erlich also expressed concern that the president’s speech would overshadow the event.

“The fact that we are not talking about the event, but we are talking about his presence. I think it distracts from the event.”

The statement from Áras an Uachtaráin (the presidential residence) said: “President Higgins’ statements will show, through his work in politics and as president, that he has again and again strongly condemned antisemitism, Islamophobia and all forms of racism.”

The statement added that the president’s previous comments 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”.

Following the recent ceasefire deal between Israel and Gaza, the statement said that “the president has strongly expressed the hope that a hostage release and ceasefire agreement will bring the release of all hostages and an end to the horrific loss of life”.

The event will mark 80 years since the end of World War II and remember all those who perished in the Holocaust.