“‘Never again’ is not just a pledge by the survivors. It is, first and foremost, the very essence of this United Nations Organization,’’ said Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin Wednesday at ceremony at the UN in New York marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“On this day, we once again remember the essence of the mission of this institution: all-out war against genocide,’’ he said.
He continued, “To our great regret, since the UN was established, this rationale for its existence, its very raison d’être, has become ever more acute,” he continued. “Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, Cambodia, Syria, Nigeria. These are just a few of the places where nations and communities have been slaughtered in a way that reminded the world that the Holocaust of the Jews was not the final chapter in the brutal scheme of man against his fellow man.
“The slaughter of nations and of communities was not born in Nazi Germany and did not cease with the opening of the gates of Auschwitz- Birkenau, Majdanek and Buchenwald,” he added.
“Now, in our own time, when the fundamentalist viper is raising its ugly head, we must remember that evil is not the property of any specific religion, just as it is not the attribute of any specific country or ethnic group. It is evil that, by its very nature, seeks to differentiate and discriminate between one life and another, between one human being and another, while the only real difference is between good and bad; between humanity and darkness.”
“We have not yet found the antidote to the poison that led to genocide 70 years ago,” Ban concluded. “As we remember what was lost in the past, and as we recognize the perils of the present, we know what we must do, and we know that we must do it together,’’ Rivlin said.
The Israeli president opened his speech to the UN by addressing the attack on Israel's northern border in which two IDF soldiers were killed. Hezbollah, the terrorist Lebanese group, claimed responsibility for the attack. "I stand before you, at a time of great tension in our region. My heart and my thoughts, are with my people in Israel. Terrorism does not distinguish between blood."
Rivlin decided Wednesday to cut short his visit to New York by two days following the incidents on the border.
"I want to send my condolences to the bereaved families as well as my wishes for a full recovery to the wounded. I am certain that the IDF knows how to manage the situation, and that Israel’s leaders will work to calm the situation as much as possible. We are with you, even when we are required to do our job abroad, for our country and for our people."
On Tuesday, Rivlin held a working meeting with UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon in which they discussed cooperation between Israel and the UN, the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip, and the various investigations being held around the events of Operation Protective Edge last summer.
The United Nations event marking the 10th anniversary of the UN-sanctioned International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, as well as the 70th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, at the UN General Assembly, centered on the theme “Liberty, Life and the Legacy of the Holocaust Survivors,” included keynote addresses from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and from Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.
Ban Ki-moon called for international unity and vigilance to combat rising extremism.
“Even today, after all we have witnessed, all that we know, all that we have pledged, and all we have done, we face widespread challenges to our common humanity,” hje declared, adding : “Anti-Semitism remains a violent reality. Jews continue to be killed solely because they are Jews. In Europe and elsewhere, Muslims are under attack, the victims of bigotry at the hands of political opportunists and ultra-nationalists.’’
“We have not yet found the antidote to the poison that led to genocide 70 years ago,” Ban concluded. “As we remember what was lost in the past, and as we recognize the perils of the present, we know what we must do, and we know that we must do it together.”
In his speech, Shalev remarked that modern society deludes itself into thinking that technological advances progress alongside moral advances. "To our great sorrow, this is not true," he noted, adding that "nowadays, destructive evil, including vicious anti-semitism, reappears in different contexts and ideologies.’’
These ideologies deny human rights and dignity in other dangerous ways and circumstances. As an educator, I ask, from the platform of the UN, how, confronted by this reality, we can ensure that moral values will still be as essential to our lives as technology advances? Our world today is plagued with cruel conflicts for dominance and resources. In the shadow of these conflicts, we can and must educate the next generation of citizens and leaders to choose to behave ethically and humanely."