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Geert Wilders: Honoring the victims will only have value when Israel is fully supported in its existential struggle and Hamas and Hezbollah are destroyed.
World leaders expressed their condolences to Israel on Monday and the pope called for a "day of prayer and fasting" on an occasion marked with marches, memorial and vigils to commemorate the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre.
U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will light a yahrzeit memorial candle.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish, will plant a memorial tree at Number One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the vice president of the United States, located on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, to honor the victims.
The two leaders will deliver remarks in the afternoon that the White House will livestream, the White House added.
Former President Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential nominee, plans to participate in an Oct. 7 remembrance event in Miami on Monday evening.
“Jewish community leaders will gather to honor the 1,200 lives lost after being taken hostage and killed on that fateful morning one year ago,” the Trump campaign said. “The event will also remember the victims of antisemitic violence that has continued to afflict communities worldwide since that tragic day.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, tweeting in French, English and Hebrew, said: "October 7. The pain remains, as vivid as it was a year ago. The pain of the Israeli people. Ours. The pain of wounded humanity. We do not forget the victims, the hostages, or the families with broken hearts from absence or waiting. I send them our fraternal thoughts."
On Sunday, Macron spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone, reaffirming France's "unwavering commitment" to Israel's security while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.
Macron's condolences came despite a deterioration in relations between France and Israel, sparked by Macron's call on Saturday to halt some arms sales to the Jewish state.
Israelis expressed their resentment in overwhelmingly negative comments to his Oct. 7 post on X.
Other leaders also extended their sympathies to Israel.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Oct. 7 the "darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust," in a statement on his government's website.
"As a father, a husband, a son, a brother—meeting the families of those who lost their loved ones last week was unimaginable," he said, referring to a memorial event last week in which he met family members of British hostages and victims of Oct. 7.
"Their grief and pain are ours, and it is shared in homes across the land," he said.
However, Starmer also called for "immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, and for the removal of all restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza," a position opposed by Israel, in the middle of operations to rid the two areas of terrorists.
In early Sept., the U.K. suspended some arms sales to the Israel Defense Forces, claiming there was a “clear risk” the weapons could be used by to “commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.” The move was condemned by Israel.
Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, who is among the most pro-Israel European leaders, tweeted on Monday, "Today we honor the innocent victims of the barbaric Islamic terrorist attack of October 7 last year in Israel.
"But honoring is not without obligation," he said, noting that this will only "have value" when Israel is fully supported in its "existential struggle for survival and the perpetrators—the terrorist organizations #Hamas, #Hezbollah and all their proxies—are destroyed."
Wilders added that the Netherlands will finally have to "crack down" on its own antisemites" and "expel them from our country wherever possible."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin stands with Israel and "feel[s] with you the horror, the pain, the uncertainty and the sadness.
"The Hamas terrorists must be fought,” he said, while "calling for a ceasefire, for the hostages to be freed and for a political process—even if that seems more distant today than ever."
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip "need hope and perspectives if they are to renounce terror,” claimed Scholz.
German leaders will attend commemorative events at houses of worship on Monday. In an evening ceremony planned at Hamburg's Hohe Weide Synagogue, Scholz will make a statement.
And German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will attend an interfaith service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, followed by a a walk to the nearby Jewish community center where another memorial event will take place, according to the German Press Agency (dpa)
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese "unequivocally" condemned Hamas’s actions in a government statement.
"On the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks, we pause to reflect on the horrific terrorist atrocity that reverberated around the globe," he said.
Albanese noted that since the atrocity, "Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day—and as a nation we say 'Never again.' ... There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith."
Pope Francis called for a day of prayer and fast on Oct. 7.
“In this dramatic hour of our history, while the winds of war and the fires of violence continue to devastate entire peoples and nations,” the Christian community is reminded to "put itself at the service of humanity," the pope said, according to Vatican News.
While thousands gathered to remember the victims of Oct. 7 in cities across Europe and the U.S., anti-Israel demonstrations also took place on Sunday, including in New York, Berlin, London and Paris.
In Berlin on Sunday, more than one thousand people marched for Palestinian Arabs chanting: "Gaza, you are not alone." More protests are planned for Frankfurt on Monday, Le Monde reported.
In Morocco, tens of thousands gathered in the capital on Sunday, waving PLO flags and calling to cut ties with Israel. The country joined the Abraham Accords in 2020.
In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Oct. 7 massacre were a "just, logical and legally justified international action, and the Palestinians were in the right."
