After chairman controversy, Eitam skipped over for Yad Vashem role
Ronen Plot, the mayor of a town in the North, will serve as interim chairman. Eitam has previously called to “expel the large majority of Arabs of Judea and Samaria."
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFEffi Eitam, seen at the Jerusalem Supreme Court during a hearing on oil searching in the Golan Heights, on December 23, 2014.(photo credit: FLASH90)
Ronen Plot, mayor of the northern town of Nof Hagalil, has been selected to serve as the interim chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, ending weeks of controversy that had roiled Israeli supporters across the world.The decision, approved by the Yad Vashem Board on Tuesday, came after weeks of controversy due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to appoint former IDF general Effi Eitam to the role. Plot previously served as director-general of the Knesset.Eitam is a retired IDF brigadier-general and government minister. Higher Education Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who stepped down from the Knesset on Wednesday to join Gideon Sa’ar’s new party, originally nominated Eitam to serve as the new chairman of Yad Vashem, despite extreme comments he has made in the past about Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, as well as allegations that he authorized brutality against Palestinians while serving as a senior military officer.In 2006, at a memorial event for a soldier killed in the First Lebanon War, Eitam said that Israel would need to “expel the large majority of Arabs of Judea and Samaria; [things are] impossible with all these Arabs here, and we cannot give up on the territory.”Eitam’s candidacy was met with fierce opposition from Jewish leaders across the Diaspora as well as Israeli politicians. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz said that he would not support the nomination in a cabinet vote.A petition against Eitam’s appointment was initiated by dozens of international historians, academics, museum curators and other public figures, including the renowned scholar and author Prof. Deborah Lipstadt.Plot’s appointment is temporary and he will continue to serve as mayor of Nof Hagalil – formerly known as Nazareth Illit – concurrently with the chairmanship of Yad Vashem. A permanent chairman will be appointed following the establishment of a new government.Outgoing chairman Avner Shalev expressed his willingness to assist Plot to the full extent necessary during the period of his service as acting chairman. “I extend my warm appreciation to Ronen Plot for his consent to take this responsibility upon himself, as a volunteer, and wish him much success,” Shalev said.
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