JNS
The Hamas terrorist organization “drew inspiration from Hitler and the Nazis in attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023,” the Israeli president told the United Nations.
Hamas was inspired by Hitler and the Nazis when it attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Iran aims to annihilate the Jewish people, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Monday in a keynote speech marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday at United Nations headquarters in New York.
“Under no circumstances will we accept any challenge to the Jewish people’s legitimate right to self-determination in our land, in the State of Israel,” Herzog said. “It is time to acknowledge: Challenging our right to exist is not diplomacy. It is plain antisemitism.”
In addition to praying for the hostages, whom Hamas holds in Gaza, and praising the ideals of the United Nations, which was created after the Holocaust with a mandate to never allow history to repeat itself, Herzog also criticized the global body, where his father, Chaim Herzog, was as ambassador, for falling short of its mission.
“Rather than fulfilling its purpose and fighting courageously against a global epidemic of jihadist, murderous and abhorrent terror, time and again this assembly has exhibited moral bankruptcy,” the Israeli president told attendees, a mix of diplomats, Holocaust survivors, Jewish leaders and others.
“International forums and institutions, such as the International Criminal Court, opt for outrageous hypocrisy and protection of the perpetrators of the atrocities,” he added. “They blur the distinction between good and evil, creating a distorted symmetry between the victim and the murderous monster.”
“I ask you, how is this possible?” he said. “How is it possible that international institutions, which began as an anti-Nazi alliance, are allowing antisemitic genocidal doctrines to flourish uninterrupted in the wake of the largest massacre of Jews since World War II?”
The Jewish state believes “in the power of partnership, particularly partnership between nations and peoples, to heal and build,” Herzog said. He asked other member states to “commit to joining hands to defeat darkness and hatred and work together to ensure the building of a shared future.”
“This is the vow we must share, all of us, the family of nations,” he said. “That what happened once will never happen again.”
António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general whose relationship with Israel has soured significantly in the aftermath of Oct. 7, also addressed attendees on Jan. 27.
The U.N. head acknowledged the recently implemented ceasefire and with relatives of Omer Neutra in attendance—the 21-year-old was killed on Oct. 7 and his body remains in Gaza—in attendance, Guterres said that the United Nations “will do our utmost to ensure it leads to the release of all hostages.”
“We renew our resolve never to forget. Never to forget the atrocities that so outraged the conscience of humankind,” Guterres said. “Never to forget their putrid foundations: millennia of antisemitic hate—manifest in marginalization, discrimination, expulsions and murder.”
“Remembrance is not only a moral act,” he said. “Remembrance is a call to action.”
“To allow the Holocaust to fade from memory,” he added, “would dishonor the past and betray the future.”
Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS on Monday that “we have seen denial of the atrocities of Oct. 7 even now, 15 months after.”
“There are parallels between the denial of the Holocaust and the denial of Oct. 7,” Danon said. He added that “we have to fight for the facts, for the history, for the truth” and that “we will stand proud and tall, representing our people.”
The Israeli envoy told JNS before he was slated, on Monday afternoon, to meet with Guterres that Israel “expected more” out of the United Nations after Oct. 7.
“Maybe today, when we mark the 80th year for the liberation of Auschwitz and the creation of the United Nations, we will see a shift of the attitude of the United Nations, which is about time.”
'Take concrete steps for progress’
Michael Herzog, the Israeli president’s brother who just finished his tenure as Israeli ambassador in Washington, told JNS on Monday that Holocaust remembrance activities are “extremely relevant to our situation.”
“There’s been so much over the last year and a half, such dehumanization of Israelis and Jews and the Holocaust,” he said.
That’s what the Holocaust was as well, according to Michael Herzog. “It was a dehumanization,” he said.
“The Holocaust is always hovering over our heads,” he added. “We have to remember that Israel has faced an existential situation, and we have to be strong, united and learn the lessons of the Holocaust.”
Dorothy Shea, who is leading the U.S. mission to the United Nations on an interim basis during the transition between the Biden and Trump administrations, pushed for U.N. member states to endorse and implement the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s working definition of antisemitism.
“The challenge now lies in putting these guidelines into practice,” she said. “The United Nations must demonstrate its full commitment to its human-rights mandate and take concrete steps that will lead to tangible progress. Together, we can make a difference. Together, we can stamp out hate.”
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s U.N. envoy, who frequently criticizes Israel, complained of what he said was an erasure of the Soviet effort to defeat the Nazis. (Russia has also faced criticism for rewriting Holocaust history to depict its rival, Ukraine, as sympathetic to Nazis.)
The “children who accepted sweets” from Soviet soldiers upon the liberation of Auschwitz “could not have imagined that in just a few decades, the decisive role of the Soviet army in the destruction of Nazism and the end of the Holocaust would begin to be questioned,” Nebenzia said.
The coalition against Hitler “took the name of the United Nations, and no one has the right to consign this fact to oblivion,” he added.
Nebenzia paused for photographs with Herzog and Guterres before Monday’s event—a rare joint public appearance between Israeli and Russian officials since Moscow strengthened its military alliance with Iran. (JNS sought comment in person from Nebenzia, who referred JNS to his speech.)
Marianne Muller, Marion Blumenthal and Nur Ben Shalom were among the Holocaust survivors to address attendees.
Muller, who was born in 1942, only managed to escape because her mother bribed a Nazi guard with her wedding ring. “God has created mankind to love, not to hate,” said Muller, who uses a wheelchair. “I want to ask forgiveness of the 6 million who aren’t here.”
Mohamed Abushahab, the Emirati deputy envoy to the United Nations, attended a morning presentation by the Israeli mission outside of the General Assembly hall but declined to comment to JNS. Omar Hilale, Morocco’s U.N. envoy, also attended and appeared to be on friendly terms with Israeli officials despite tensions among Abraham Accords partners due to the war against Hamas.
