I used to argue that the message “Never forget” needs to be changed to “Never trivialize,” but we’re beyond that stage. We now need the message: “Never distort.”
The world marks Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, the date that Auschwitz was liberated in 1945. But every year, fewer people understand “why” it is commemorated – what the Holocaust actually means. This is not only because the numbers of those who personally survived it has naturally dwindled in the passing eight decades; it’s because the facts have been lost – or twisted in time.
Israel commemorates Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day – or Yom Hashoah – in the spring, fittingly between Passover and Independence Day. But Israelis don’t need a special day to remember, especially after October 7, 2023: the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust and one of the darkest days in Jewish history.
Iranian-sponsored terrorists from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other movements invaded southern Israel, murdering, raping, mutilating, and beheading victims. Entire families were shot or burned alive in their homes.
Thirty children were among the 1,200 murdered that day; 251 people – Israelis and foreign nationals – were abducted to Gaza, where the body of Ran Gvili is still being held.
There’s a reason the term “genocide” had to be created to describe the Shoah. The Holocaust wiped out six million Jews, only because they were Jews. It was a systematic attempt to erase the Jews as a people.
If the slogans “Never forget” and “Never again” mean anything, we need to recognize the essence of October 7, which was accompanied by rocket attacks from multiple fronts. If anything is reminiscent of the Nazi ideology, it is the Islamic Republic of Iran (and its terrorist proxies), which calls for the elimination of Israel, targets Jews around the world, and promotes global jihad, while slaughtering its own people who have been rising up against the repressive regime.
UN hypocrisy
THE UN goes through the motions of remembrance once a year, but this only underscores the hypocrisy seen the rest of the year when the world body raises motion after motion, turning Israel into the source of all evil, while downplaying very real horrors going on elsewhere.
As Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, posted on X/Twitter this week, “If it’s not Israel, it’s not of interest.” Danon noted that according to the United Nations Security Council summary of activities for 2025 submitted to the General Assembly, there were just 15 debates on the bloody war Russia launched on Ukraine; 10 discussions on Sudan, where more than 150,000 have been killed; and eight on Iran, “where we all saw what was happening in the streets.” In contrast, there were 50 discussions about Israel for its war – combating terrorism in Gaza.
The UN’s own site says: “The theme, ‘Holocaust Remembrance for Dignity and Human Rights’ will guide United Nations Holocaust remembrance and education in 2026. Remembrance dignifies the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. It keeps alive their memories of the communities and traditions and loved ones the Nazis sought to erase. The Holocaust warns us of the deadly consequences of antisemitism and hatred, dehumanization, and apathy left unchallenged.”
It continues with more moving words: “Over eighty years after the Holocaust, we witness daily assaults on our fellow global citizens. Antisemitism and hatred surge. Denial and distortion of the Holocaust persist. Remembrance of the Holocaust defies denial and distortion, rejects falsehoods, confronts hatred, and insists on the humanity of the victims. The defence of universal rights is essential for sustainable peace and lies at the heart of the United Nations. In remembering the victims of the Holocaust, we affirm our shared humanity and pledge to defend the dignity and human rights of all.”
I’m relieved that the UN, in 2026, managed to mention “antisemitism” – even if it couldn’t quite bring itself to name the victims – the Jews – by name.
Despite the UN’s annual “Never again” angst, many people outside Israel want to forget – or even find a way to blame the Jews. Blaming the victim is only acceptable when they are Jewish, the same way that rape victims are always believed – unless they are Israelis. It’s been dubbed the “#MeToo, unless you’re a Jew” phenomenon.
Replacing history
HIstory is being replaced by biased narratives, and universalism sets the tone. The story of the Jews and their unique situation is being erased – or worse, inverted and weaponized against them.
The “Israelis are the new Nazis” theme has been gaining force for years and has become a motif since Israel dared to fight back following the October 7 mega-atrocity. The language, the images, and the claims are all deliberately aimed at turning the Jews into the arch-enemy.
This toxicity is boosted by social media and outlets like Qatar’s al-Jazeera, but even mainstream Western media – including the BBC and The New York Times – play a role.
The “Gaza is a ghetto” lie was easily morphed into the “Israel’s genocide in Gaza” blood libel. The skeletal figures of starving Jews in concentration camps perversely turned into charges that Israel denied food for starving Gazan babies. The stories continue to circulate and serve as a weapon, fueling more attacks, even after it was proved that some of the photos of malnourished children were fake, some were from tragedies elsewhere like Yemen, and other “victims” were suffering not from starvation, but from illnesses – and were receiving treatment, with Israeli help.
Unlike the rockets launched by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran at Israel, the Jewish state did not indiscriminately bombard Gaza. Hamas made a deliberate policy of endangering its own population and using them as human shields in schools and hospitals, as well as creating a vast warren of terror tunnels under populated areas.
The more recognition the Palestinians gain for their undefined and ill-conceived state, the further they and their supporters go in denying Jewish links to the land and the right for the Jewish state to exist.
“From the river to the sea” is not just a mantra: It’s a call to erase the State of Israel and replace it with a Palestinian entity. Two lethal attacks in the US last year – when a young couple was murdered in May and a Holocaust survivor died in June after a firebomb was thrown at a vigil for the hostages – were accompanied by chants of “Free, free Palestine.”
The 15 people slain in Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Hanukkah were murdered because the rhetoric and sentiment had become normalized. Immediately after the murderous attack at a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, pro-Palestinian demonstrators took to the streets.
Monitoring antisemitic acts
My colleagues at The Jerusalem Post do an admirable job monitoring antisemitic acts around the globe – from the graffiti and harassment to the bans, acts of arson, and shootings. It is hard to keep track of it all: restaurants boycotted or forced to close in Belgium and Germany, the burning this month of a synagogue in Mississippi, and a Jewish parliamentarian prevented from addressing schoolchildren in the UK. Attacks on a Jewish restaurant and firebombing of a synagogue preceded the Bondi Beach massacre in Australia; such attacks have taken place in Canada and other places once considered a safe haven for Jews.
There is a concentrated effort to create acute security threats whenever Jews or Israelis gather – until the local authorities bar the event or venues refuse to host them.
With the surge in antisemitic attacks worldwide, Jews are openly wondering if this is the 1930s again – which reinforces the need for Israel’s existence.
The phenomenon begins before the physical attacks. It starts when the pervasive atmosphere permits and even fosters antisemitism. It exists when, instead of protecting the Jewish community, the authorities advise them to stay home and remove identifying signs of their religion. It’s present when the British Midlands police not only prevent an Israeli team’s fans from attending a match but also fabricate the “evidence” used to justify the ban. That five countries pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest rather than participate in an event that includes an Israeli contestant shows how antisemitism and hypocrisy thrive.
There is no “universal justice,” “freedom of speech,” “freedom of movement,” or “freedom of worship” if Jews are prevented from benefiting from these same basic rights.
As we saw in the Holocaust, the assault on human rights starts with the Jews but doesn’t end there. When a canary in the coal mine goes silent, it doesn’t mean the danger has passed; it means the messenger has been killed.