The Irish government has made its first reaction to inflammatory rhetoric from parliamentarian Richard Boyd Barrett calling for his supporters to rise up in "intifada" (violent struggle) against Israel. Pressed by Gript Media's Ben Scallan on whether the rhetoric would constitute legally proscribed hate speech under the revision to Ireland's hate speech code that the government is contemplating, Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin deflected accusing the journalist of being "obsessed" with hate speech legislation. In response to the question Martin said that there were many strands of opinion within Israeli society but stated that calls for the destruction of the country were unacceptable. Michael Martin: "To incite people to violence is wrong - in terms of wishing people to participate in an intifada. Or to describe a country as a psychopath is wrong. The State of Israel has the right to exist. It seems as if Richard Boyd Barrett is denying that right to exist. As far as I'm concerned the more substantial issue is the content and substance of what he said. And it needs to be challenged." #hatespeech #extremism
== Timestamps ==
Intro - 00:00
Intifada call - 00:20
X - 01:00
Gript.ie - 02:00
Hate speech in Ireland - 02:10
Micheal Martin response - 02:38
Richard Boyd Barrett comments - 02:47
Micheal Martin response 2 - 03:15
