Holocaust Remembrance Day

Three Holocaust survivors - Walter Bingham, 101, George Shefi, 93, and Paul Alexander, 89 - attended along with the embassy staff, diplomats and their families.

The decision came from fears that pro-Palestinian organizations might file a legal motion for his arrest upon arrival in Belgium.

"The number of Jews murdered that day was the highest since the Holocaust," he said. "But there’s a difference—now we can fight back, and we will, until all our hostages return."

As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks expressed, while we cannot change the past, with memory we can make a better future.

Jewish groups in Italy, Ireland and Israel accused international organizations of hypocrisy given their stance on the attacks suffered by Israeli civilians since October 7 2023.

Sa'ar dubbed the president's comments "despicable," noting, "Irish President Michael Higgins couldn't help himself and resorted to a cheap, despicable provocation."

This ceremony is Zelensky’s third event at Babi Yar since the start of the war, reaffirming his commitment to Holocaust remembrance.

Israel commemorates its own Holocaust Remembrance Day in the spring, on the Hebrew date of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. 

Today, pro-forma condemnations of antisemitism, while welcome, are entirely meaningless in the absence of urgent and tangible action.

In a statement, WJRO President Gideon Taylor and COO Mark Weitzman called the omission a failure to address SNCB’s moral responsibility.