TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Sirens blared across Israel early Thursday as the country came to a standstill for an annual ritual honoring the 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust.
People stopped where they walked and drivers stopped their cars to get out of vehicles as people bowed their heads in memory of the victims of the Nazi genocide. Ceremonies were planned throughout the day at Israel’s national Holocaust memorial, parliament and other locations.
Israel was founded in 1948 as a sanctuary for Jews after the Holocaust. About 165,000 survivors live in Israel, a shrinking population that is widely honored but struggling with poverty.
Opening Holocaust remembrance day at Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on the world to stop on Wednesday night. compare the Holocaust to other events in history. He spoke after the presidents of both Ukraine Y Russia he drew parallels between his ongoing war and the genocide during World War II.
“As the years go by, there are more and more discourses in the world that compare other difficult events to the Holocaust. But no,” she said. “No event in history, however cruel, is comparable to the extermination of the Jews of Europe by the Nazis and their collaborators.”
He also warned the country not to let their deep differences tear the nation apart. The speech, which took place on one of the most solemn days of the year in Israel, also took place in a deeply personal context. On Tuesday, his family received a letter with a live bullet and a death threat. Israeli authorities tightened security around the prime minister and his family and were investigating.
“My brothers and sisters, we cannot, we simply cannot allow the same dangerous gene of factionalism to dismantle Israel from within,” Bennett said.
Israel goes to great lengths to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and make heroes of those who survived. Restaurants and entertainment venues are closed on Holocaust Remembrance Day, radios play somber music, and television stations dedicate their programming to documentaries and other material related to the Holocaust.
For them, challenges lie ahead. This year’s ceremony comes as Israel and much of the world emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, which has faced Holocaust survivors in particular with heightened health risks, as well as widespread loneliness and despair.
Furthermore, around a third of Holocaust survivors in Israel live below the poverty line.many supported by stipends and government donations, according to a group representing survivors.
Despite his experience and extensive education programs, Anti-Semitism has increased around the world during the pandemic, according to a report released Wednesday.
He attributed the fuel for the anti-Jewish surge to lockdowns, social media and a backlash against Israel’s airstrikes in the Gaza Strip during last year’s 11-day war.
In addition to speeches by Bennett, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and others, Wednesday’s ceremony featured survivors lighting six torches, for the 6 million killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. The President of the German Parliament, Baerbel Bas, also attended as a special guest.
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Reference-www.thestar.com