Yad Vashem says Ukraine president's offer 'odd'

Jerusalem
January 23, 2020, 03:54 PM
by AP/UNB

UNB News
Jerusalem
Publish- January 23, 2020, 03:54 PM
AP/UNB

Yad Vashem says Ukraine president's offer 'odd'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, at Netanyahu official residence in Jerusalem on Thursday, Jan. 23,2020. Photo: AP

Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial has questioned the offer by the Ukrainian president to give up his delegation's seats to include more Holocaust survivors at a major gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem.

In a statement on Thursday, Yad Vashem called Volodymyr Zelenskiy's gesture "odd," saying it explained to him that survivors who expressed interest in attending the event were invited and that "it is impossible to trouble survivors in the current conditions." It said it was "a shame that he took such a step."

Dozens of world leaders are attending the largest-ever gathering focused on commemorating the Holocaust and combating modern-day anti-Semitism.

Event organizers have come under criticism for not sufficiently including Holocaust survivors and instead focusing on the panoply of visiting dignitaries. In response, Zelenskiy tweeted that his delegation was giving up its seats to allow more survivors to attend.

Israel's president is meeting with Britain's Prince Charles ahead of a gathering in Jerusalem marking 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

Charles is among dozens of presidents, heads of state and dignitaries who have descended upon the city to attend the largest-ever gathering focused on commemorating the Holocaust and combating modern-day anti-Semitism.

President Reuven Rivlin thanked Charles for attending Thursday's gathering.

The three-hour-long event at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial looks to project a united front in commemorating the genocide of European Jewry amid a global spike in anti-Jewish violence in the continent and around the world.

Israel's prime minister is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of a gathering in Jerusalem marking 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

Ahead of their meeting on Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu praised the ties between Israel and Russia, which have grown closer since Russia began its involvement in the war in neighboring Syria.

During Putin's visit, Netanyahu will dedicate a monument honoring the the nearly 900-day Nazi siege of Leningrad. The city, now known as St. Petersburg, is Putin's hometown.

Putin also plans to meet with the mother of an Israeli tourist who was jailed in Russia for carrying a few grams of hashish. Her mother told reporters earlier Thursday she was optimistic that her daughter, Naama, would be pardoned.