Knesset commemorates 66th anniversary of Nazi defeat

Netanyahu calls World War II veterans "a symbol of Jewish resilience," Rivlin: be vigilant, anti-Semitism still exists.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
world war ii (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
world war ii
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
The Knesset commemorated the 66th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat in a special Knesset Plenum sitting on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed World War II veterans that attended the special meeting.
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"I appreciate your tremendous contribution to saving humanity," he said. "Your bravery and sacrifice, the high price you paid in the bodies of many of your friends and family members, brought the victory without which the State of Israel couldn't exist and there would be no hope for the Jewish people."
Netanyahu added: "You are an example for all of us, a symbol of the Jewish resilience."
"Nazism was defeated, but the Nazi ideology and its anti-Semitic roots are still nested in many places around the world," Knesset Speaker Revuen Rivlin said. "We, the Jews, certainly can not ignore it, when Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are still available to anyone in many languages, and when a state that calls for the destruction of a nation is still a member of the UN."
Rivlin added: "We can not stay complacent when faced with calls for genocide, and we will not be silent about the tragedies of other nations."
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said that "we must remember the heroes of the war. In order to learn the lessons [of the war], we need your memories."
She added that one lesson of World War II is that "we need to decide what our fate will be. If we need to, we will fight those who do not accept our existence here."