JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected international pressure to halt the war in Gaza in a fiery speech marking the country’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day, declaring: “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.”
The message, delivered in an environment that normally avoids politics, addressed a growing chorus of world leaders who have criticized the heavy cost caused by Israel’s military offensive against Hamas militants and urged the parties to agree to a ceasefire.
“I say to the leaders of the world: no pressure, no decision from any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself,” he said. “Never again 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, and speeches at the ceremony generally avoid politics.
Netanyahu also compared the recent wave of protests on American campuses for German universities in the 1930s, in the period leading up to the Holocaust.
Sunday’s ceremony marked the start of the first Holocaust remembrance day in Israel since the Hamas attack on October 7.
The day took on a new meaning this year. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in the attack, making it the deadliest violence against Jews since the Holocaust.
