JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel dedicated its annual memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust to mark 70 years to the Warsaw ghetto uprising, a symbol of Jewish resistance against the Nazis in World War II that resonates deeply in Israel to this day.
Netanyahu called the uprising marked "a turning point in the fate of the Jewish people" where they transformed from helpless victims into fearless warriors.
Though guaranteed to fail, it became a symbol of struggle against impossible conditions, illustrated a refusal to give in to Nazi atrocities and inspired other acts of uprising and underground resistance by Jews and non-Jews alike.
While the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, Israel's annual Holocaust memorial day coincides with the Hebrew date of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Peres, an 89-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, also linked the Nazi genocide to Iran's suspected drive to acquire nuclear bombs and its leaders' repeated references to the destruction of Israel and its denial of the Holocaust.
Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe, warned of a sudden upsurge in anti-Semitic attacks and expressed alarm over the rise of extremist parties in Europe - particularly in Hungary, Greece and Ukraine.
Netanyahu called the uprising marked "a turning point in the fate of the Jewish people" where they transformed from helpless victims into fearless warriors.
Though guaranteed to fail, it became a symbol of struggle against impossible conditions, illustrated a refusal to give in to Nazi atrocities and inspired other acts of uprising and underground resistance by Jews and non-Jews alike.
While the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, Israel's annual Holocaust memorial day coincides with the Hebrew date of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
Peres, an 89-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, also linked the Nazi genocide to Iran's suspected drive to acquire nuclear bombs and its leaders' repeated references to the destruction of Israel and its denial of the Holocaust.
Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across Europe, warned of a sudden upsurge in anti-Semitic attacks and expressed alarm over the rise of extremist parties in Europe - particularly in Hungary, Greece and Ukraine.
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