Netanyahu uses Holocaust ceremony to ease international pressure against Gaza offensive

JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected international pressure to end the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, declaring: If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. alone.

The message, delivered in an environment that usually avoids politics, was aimed at the growing chorus of world leaders who have criticized the toll caused by the Israeli military offensive against Hamas militants and urged the parties to agree to a ceasefire.

Netanyahu has said he is open to a deal that would halt nearly seven months of fighting and bring home hostages held by Hamas. But he also says he remains committed to an invasion of the country the southern Gaza city of Rafahdespite widespread international opposition due to the more than 1 million civilians gathered there.

I say to world leaders: No pressure, no decision from any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself, he said, speaking in English. Never again is now.

Yom Hashoah, the day Israel observes as a memorial to the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its allies in the Holocaust, is one of the most solemn dates on the country's calendar. Speeches at the ceremony generally steer clear of politics, although Netanyahu has in recent years used the occasion to attack Israel's archenemy, Iran.

The ceremony brought Israel its first Holocaust Remembrance Day since the October 7 Hamas attack that ignited the war, imbuing the already somber day with additional meaning.

Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in the attack, making it the deadliest violence against Jews since the Holocaust.

Israel responded with an air and ground offensive in Gaza, where the death toll has risen to more than 34,500 people, according to local health officials, and about 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced. Death and destruction have prompted South Africa to present a the case of genocide against Israel at the UN World Court. Israel strongly rejects the accusations.

On Sunday, Netanyahu attacked those who accuse Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians, claiming that Israel was doing everything possible to ensure humanitarian aid enters the Gaza Strip.

The 24-hour memorial period began after sunset on Sunday with a ceremony at Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial, in Jerusalem.

There are about 245,000 Holocaust survivors worldwide, according to the Claims Conference, an organization that negotiates material compensation for Holocaust survivors. Approximately half of the survivors live in Israel.

On Sunday, Tel Aviv University and the Anti-Defamation League released an annual worldwide anti-Semitism report for 2023, which revealed a sharp increase in anti-Semitic attacks globally.

He said the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States doubled, from 3,697 in 2022 to 7,523 in 2023.

While most of these incidents occurred after the outbreak of war in October, the number of anti-Semitic incidents, which include vandalism, harassment, assault and bomb threats, from January to September was already significantly higher than a year earlier.

The report found an average of three bomb threats per day to synagogues and Jewish institutions in the US, more than 10 times the number in 2022.

Other countries saw similar increases in anti-Semitic incidents. In France, the number nearly quadrupled, from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, while it doubled in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Following the October 7 war crimes committed by Hamas, the world has seen the worst wave of anti-Semitic incidents since the end of World War II, the report said.

Netanyahu also compared the recent wave of protests on American campuses to German universities in the 1930s, on the eve of the Holocaust. He condemned the eruption of a volcano of anti-Semitism that spewed lava of lies against us around the world.

Almost 2500 the students were arrested in a wave of protests on American college campuses, while there have been smaller protests elsewhere, including France. Protesters reject accusations of anti-Semitism and say they are criticizing Israel. Campuses and the federal government are struggling to determine precisely where political speech turns to anti-Semitism.