World Leaders Gather in Jerusalem 75 Years After Holocaust
Israel hosts the global commemoration of the Holocaust in
Jerusalem on Thursday.
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Forty-nine delegations are scheduled to attend the fifth World
Holocaust Forum, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and American Vice
President Mike Pence among the world leaders participating. The event will mark
the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, the most
notorious symbol of Nazi Germany’s atrocities.
The event, taking place for the first time in Jerusalem,
comes at a time of rising anti-Semitism around the world and deepening
ignorance about the Holocaust as its memory fades.
The latest annual data from the Anti-Defamation League
showed attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions doubled between 2015 and 2018.
At the same time, only 45% of nearly 11,000 Americans polled last year knew 6
million Jews perished in the Holocaust, according to the U.S.-based Pew
Research Center. Approximately a third of the more than 7,000 Europeans in
seven countries surveyed separately by CNN that same year knew “just a little
or nothing at all” about the genocide.
The number of people who can bear witness is also rapidly
dwindling. In Israel, the largest community of survivors, the figure is
expected to fall by about half to roughly 100,000 by 2025.
Germany will be represented at the forum by President
Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Notably absent will be Polish President Andrzej Duda,
whose country was overrun by the Nazis at the outbreak of World War II and was
home to six extermination camps, including Auschwitz.
Duda bowed out because he wasn’t allowed to address the
conference while Putin was, amid a disagreement between the two leaders over
their countries’ roles in World War II.
On the sidelines of the gathering, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with guests and push to win the Israeli-American
backpacker’s release from a Russian prison.
Netanyahu has failed several times to persuade Putin to free
26-year-old Naama Issachar, who was caught with a small amount of hashish while
transiting through Moscow and is currently jailed in Russia on drug-smuggling
charges. But Putin and Netanyahu will meet with Issachar’s mother on Thursday
amid Israeli media reports the sides are now near a deal.
Issachar’s imprisonment is a cause celebre in Israel, where
she’s widely regarded as a pawn in a political game, and her release would give
the premier a boost as he goes into March 2 elections dogged by his indictment
on corruption charges.
The Israeli government’s provisional status after two
inconclusive elections last year will make it tougher for Netanyahu to take
advantage of the gathering to advance Israel’s agenda, according to Micky
Aharonson, a former head of foreign relations at Israel’s National Security
Council. “It is definitely not ideal and not optimal for Israeli policy
making,” Aharonson said.
Some of the visitors, including French President Emmanuel
Macron and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will meet with Netanyahu’s top political
rival, former military chief Benny Gantz.
The prime minister will use the opportunity to try to rally
opposition to the International Criminal Court’s plan to open an investigation
into Palestinian claims that Israel has committed war crimes, the Haaretz
newspaper reported.
In an interview broadcast this week on the Christian Trinity Broadcasting Network, Netanyahu said viewers should “ask for concrete actions, sanctions against the international court, its officials, prosecutors, everyone.”
(Bloomberg)