Traffic across Israel ground to a halt for two minutes and pedestrians stood still as the nation paused yesterday to remember the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
As sirens wailed at 7am GMT, the activity on the normally bustling streets of Jerusalem abruptly stopped as people froze to observe a ritual, which takes place every year on Holocaust memorial day, which began at sundown on Sunday.
Radio and television stations, which have been broadcasting a string of programs on the Nazi genocide, also fell silent.
During the morning, top Israeli dignitaries, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres were to lay wreaths at a ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.
Opening the memorial events at a ceremony on Sunday evening, Peres said that Israel and the world must remain ever vigilant against the global threat posed by anti-Semitism.
“We must not ignore any occurrence of anti-Semitism, any desecration of a synagogue, any tombstone smashed in a cemetery in which our families are buried,” he said.
“We must not ignore the rise of nuanced neo-Nazi extreme right-wing parties, which are a danger to every man and a warning to all peoples,” he added.
Netanyahu used the opportunity to once again warn of the existential threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to the Jewish state.
“Today we face again concrete facts and real danger. Iran calls for our destruction — it is developing a nuclear weapon,” he said, urging the world to take action.
“I call on the leaders of world powers to insist on a full dismantling of Iran’s capability to manufacture nuclear weapons and to persist until this goal is achieved,” he said.
In other developments, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called the Holocaust “the most heinous crime” of modern history, voicing a rare acknowledgement of Jewish suffering.
Abbas’ announcement on Sunday appeared to be aimed at reaching out to Israeli public opinion.
While Israel’s national Holocaust memorial said Abbas’ comments may be a step in the right direction, Netanyahu brushed them aside.
He said Abbas’ renewed attempts to reconcile with the Islamic militant movement Hamas raised doubts about the Palestinian leader’s intentions.
“President Abbas can’t have it both ways. He can’t say the Holocaust was terrible, but at the same time embrace those who deny the Holocaust and seek to perpetrate another destruction of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu told CNN.
Meanwhile, according to The Daily Beast news Web site, US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly told the influential Trilateral Commission on Friday: “A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens — or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state.”
“Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution, which both leaders, even [on Thursday], said they remain deeply committed to,” Kerry was cited as saying.
Additional reporting by AP
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number