UN
Near my heart, I wear a yellow pin. A pin that symbolizes anticipation, hope, and a resounding cry to all humanity: bring back our tortured children and elderly, our women and men, from the tunnels of terror in Gaza – home, to Israel. We call it “The Hostages Pin”. On the massacre of October 7th, 2023 Hamas terrorists attacked our people, they murdered, raped and mutilated women, tortured, beheaded and burned innocent people and entire families, and kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children.
Amongst our sisters and brothers kidnapped was Omer Neutra , an Israeli and American citizen, whose fate was unknown for well over a year. Omer’s great-grandfather, Yosef Neutra – was a Holocaust survivor and a freedom fighter, who survived the Shoah carrying just a few coins in his pocket. Louise – Omer’s aunt, took her grandfather Yosef’s coins, and fashioned them into the yellow ribbon hostages symbol – surrounded by barbed wire. The coins that survived humanity’s darkest abyss became the canvas for creating a pin that symbolizes the story of a nation.
5 View gallery President Issac Herzog addresses the UN assembly on Holocaust Memorial Day ( Photo: UN )
5 View gallery President Issac Herzog with UN Sec. Gen Guterres and the parents of slain hostage Omer Neutra
A symbol of survival, a symbol of faith, a symbol of hope, a symbol of longing, a symbol of remembrance. A symbol of outcry: The outcry of so many generations – calling for justice, for humanity. Omer’s parents, Orna and Ronen Neutra – are here with us today. For over 400 days, Ronen wore the pin on his lapel, hoping and praying for his son’s return.
I stand before you as president of a nation that is determined and proud, and yet – anguished and incomplete
A few weeks ago, the Neutra family received the devastating news: Captain Omer Neutra fell heroically in the battles of October 7th. His body is being held by murderous terrorists in Gaza. I stand before you as president of a nation that is determined and proud, and yet – anguished and incomplete. Although the Israeli people have been overcome with emotion seeing seven of our daughters at last emerge heroically from hell – still, 90 Israelis and foreign nationals remain in Hamas captivity. We are anxiously awaiting six more to be freed this week, and awaiting all others.
Ensure our hostages return to their homes – every single one of them
I call on all representatives in this General Assembly, all who consider themselves part of the civilized world, to throw your weight to ensure our hostages return to their homes – every single one of them. Bring them home now!
In one of the darkest days of the Holocaust, November 3rd, 1943, Rabbi Klonymus Kalman Shapira – “the Rebbe of Piaseczno” was murdered by the Nazis in the massacre known as “Aktion Erntefest”. Shortly before his death, the Rebbe composed a special prayer for our people, the Jews, who were at the hands of the murderers— the Nazis and their accomplices. Here – at the United Nations General Assembly, as President of the Jewish Democratic State of Israel, I wish to recite this prayer for the urgent return of all of our sisters and brothers who are held in brutal captivity by murderous terrorists. The hostages are enduring subhuman conditions, without essential primary health care, without Red Cross visitations, and without any compliance with international law, treaties, or agreements.
“God Almighty. Listen to the voice of our weeping and the sigh of our hearts. Our loved ones, women and children, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, have been torn from our midst. Be You – Almighty God – the guardian of all the captives, protect them from all trouble and distress, give them strength to endure torment and grant them life, so they may merit return to their families. Amen.”
Dearest Holocaust survivors, United Nations Secretary-General Mr. António Guterres— I thank you for this meaningful invitation, President of this session of the General Assembly— His Excellency Mr. Philémon Yang, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations— His Excellency Mr. Danny Danon, Ladies and gentlemen:
5 View gallery UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres ( Photo: UN )
Precisely eighty years ago today, on January 27th, 1945, the gates of hell collapsed. Auschwitz, the largest and most vicious death factory in human history, was liberated by the Soviet Union’s Red Army. In many other death camps, the horror continued for months, until they were liberated by the Allied forces – the Red army, the American Army, the British Army and the heroic armies of many other nations. Six million Jews, one-third of the Jewish people at that time – were systematically slaughtered by the Nazis and their collaborators. It was history’s most monstrous, sadistic premeditated and meticulously executed mass murder: Murder in gas chambers, in crematoriums, in ghettos, in death valleys, in death marches, in death camps. In the darkest, most abhorrent chapter in human history.
Shmuel Gogol was born in Poland in 1924. After arriving at the Warsaw orphanage run by the great Polish-Jewish educator Janusz Korczak, Shmuel was given a small harmonica as a gift. When he was taken to Auschwitz, he took the harmonica with him, but it was confiscated immediately upon arrival. When Shmuel discovered that another prisoner had a harmonica, he gave up his bread rations, to hold the instrument once again. And so, in the heart of darkness, between the cracks of fear and despair, the melody of an orphaned Jewish child’s soul burst out, a melody that would not allow hope to fade. One day, a Nazi guard heard the melody of the harmonica. He ordered Shmuel to participate in the Auschwitz “Death Orchestra”– to play music while Jews were marched to their horrific death in the gas chambers. “When my cousins marched to their death in front of me”, Gogol recounted, “I closed my eyes and said ‘enough. I cannot look anymore.’” There, in those moments, he vowed: If he survived, he would dedicate his life to teaching music to children.
From the darkest and cruelest of hours, emerged a message of hope and determination – to revive the melody of life. Shmuel immigrated to Israel, and taught harmonica for many years. He returned to Auschwitz in 1990 on an emotional journey, alongside pupils from the Harmonica Orchestra he established in Israel – and played there, for the first time, with his eyes open.
There is a well-known Hebrew phrase: “this melody cannot be stopped.” The wail of the harmonica – the melody Gogol played in the Holocaust, became the melody of Jewish rebirth and revival! The sounds of horror, grief and death, became – through the courage of many, including the survivors of the Holocaust – sounds of building, of life, of faith and of hope; the sounds of the State of Israel. Sounds of eyes wide open, of a nation rising from dust and devastation, a nation continuing to live – with all its beauty and strength. The nation of Israel.
Tragically, in November 2023, just a few weeks after the October 7th massacre, Shmuel Gogol’s great-grandson – IDF Captain Asaf Master – fell in a heroic battle in the Gaza Strip. He died defending Israeli citizens – of all faiths and beliefs – and fighting against terror in its darkest and most barbaric form. The story of heroism, the story of fighting to live, of justice and humanity, of the eternity of the Jewish people – carries on from generation to generation.
This moral and ethical lighthouse has been eroded time and time again
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Holocaust was the single most catastrophic disaster in the history of our people, and the history of all humanity. Yet from this unthinkable wreckage emerged a voice resounding throughout the family of nations. A voice calling for repair, healing, and building together; A voice that led to the founding of the United Nations and the International Courts, and to the establishment of the State of Israel. An act supported by the family of nations, an act of historical justice. I am privileged that a relative of mine took part in these foundational processes. Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, the uncle of my mother, Aura, was a proud Jew whose family perished in the Holocaust. He served on the team that prosecuted the Nuremberg trials against Nazi leaders and officials who plotted and executed the greatest genocide in the history of mankind – the genocide of the Jewish people. The Shoah.
Professor Lauterpacht helped establish the International Court of Justice – later serving on its bench as a judge. The man who saw, with his very own eyes in the Nuremberg courtroom the cruelest of human beings – the Nazis who annihilated his family and sought to erase his people- this man was also the one who first formulated the legal definition of Crimes Against Humanity. He did so out of deep faith – and hope, that the international institutions would forever be committed to preventing these heinous crimes from ever happening again – to the Jewish people or any other people, and committed to delivering justice for the sake of all humanity.
However, this moral and ethical lighthouse has been eroded time and time again. I recall such a moral lapse in November of 1975, when the United Nations General Assembly despicably declared the Jewish people’s national movement – Zionism – a form of racism. I recall how fifty years ago, right here at this very podium stood my father Chaim Herzog as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations. He would later become the Sixth President of Israel. My father served as a British officer in WWII, liberating and rescuing Jews from Nazi death camps including Bergen-Belsen.
He stood here on the memorial night of Kristallnacht— in which Nazi stormtroopers attacked Jewish communities, burned synagogues, murdered and jailed thousands of Jews throughout the Nazi’s Third Reich. As he delivered his monumental speech advocating for the entire Jewish people, my father tore up UN resolution 3379, calling out the hatred, ignorance, and lies that enabled such a disgrace. It took 16 years for this assembly to revoke that shameful resolution.
Rather than fulfilling its purpose, and fighting courageously against a global epidemic of jihadist, murderous, and abhorrent terror, time and again this assembly has exhibited moral bankruptcy.
We know for a fact, based on evidence, that the October 7th terrorists drew inspiration from Hitler and the Nazisz.
Today we find ourselves yet again at a dangerous crossroads in the history of this institution. Rather than fulfilling its purpose, and fighting courageously against a global epidemic of jihadist, murderous, and abhorrent terror, time and again this assembly has exhibited moral bankruptcy. International forums and institutions such as the International Criminal Court opt for outrageous hypocrisy and protection of the perpetrators of the atrocities.
They blur the distinction between good and evil, creating a distorted symmetry between the victim and the murderous monster. I ask you: how is this possible? How is it possible that international institutions, which began as an anti-Nazi alliance, are allowing Antisemitic genocidal doctrines to flourish uninterrupted in the wake of the largest massacre of Jews since World War II.
5 View gallery International Court of Justice ( Photo: Phil Nijhuis / AP )
How is it possible that the moral compass of so many in the family of nations has become so disoriented, that they no longer recognize the clear truth: That just as terrorists use civilians as human shields, they also weaponize the international institutions, undermining the most basic, fundamental reason for their establishment. How is it possible that the same institutions established in the wake of the greatest genocide in history – the Holocaust – are manipulating the definition of genocide for the sole purpose of attacking Israel and the Jewish people. Doing so by embracing the despicable phenomenon of Holocaust Inversion.
This is an urgent wake-up call for all of humanity: antisemitism, savagery, cruelty, and racism are still thriving on our planet
I want to be clear: We know for a fact, based on evidence, that the October 7th terrorists drew inspiration from Hitler and the Nazis, and acted with all their cruelty to destroy our nation State of Israel and its citizens. But the issue, ladies and gentlemen, is much deeper and reaches far beyond the October 7th massacre. We have all witnessed a huge volcano of antisemitism erupt following the massacre.
5 View gallery Doron Asher and her daughters abducted by Hamas terrorists
This alarming reality was also reflected in the important report the United Nations just published about antisemitism. This is an urgent wake-up call for all of humanity: antisemitism, savagery, cruelty, and racism are still thriving on our planet.
They are thriving because far too many states represented here do not confront them, do not unanimously condemn them, do not fight against them. Even more outrageous, is a UN member state— Iran, explicitly scheming and acting to destroy a fellow UN member state – the State of Israel. Iran’s fanatical leadership turned its country into a hub of antisemitism, hatred and terror. It is developing weapons of mass destruction aimed at annihilating the one and only national home of the Jewish people, born out of the ashes of the Holocaust.
Challenging our right to exist is not diplomacy, it is plain antisemitism.
The world cannot continue turning a blind eye to the global threat posed by Iran— both directly and through its proxies, and to the danger represented by Jihadist terrorism. Enabling realization of these threats signals to past generations that we failed to learn the lessons of history, and signals to future generations that our battles – will soon become theirs.
This is a moment of truth for us all: We either bow our heads – or unite and take action to halt the danger. Now, we must – all of us – fight together, shoulder to shoulder and with all our might against antisemitism, terror and hatred. We must fight against the misuse of international institutions as a vehicle threatening the very existence and right to self-defense of the nation state of the Jewish people- the State of Israel. Under no circumstances will we accept any challenge to the Jewish people’s legitimate right to self-determination in our land – in the State of Israel. It is time to acknowledge: Challenging our right to exist is not diplomacy, it is plain antisemitism.
Eighty years after the Holocaust, I stand here with deep faith and hope. Our nation rose from the flames of the crematorium, not to live forever by the sword — but to build, to repair, to add light, to heal. We have stood strong against our enemies’ assaults, and we have always done so – as we do today – in full compliance with international law and humanitarian norms. And no less important – we have forged alliances and peace treaties that have transformed the Middle East.
From the ashes of Auschwitz, we built a resilient, diverse democratic society
I pray for the day we will achieve peace with more and more nations in our region; and that all peoples of the Middle East— Israelis, Palestinians, and all others, will live peacefully, side by side. From the ashes of Auschwitz, we built a resilient, diverse democratic society – composed of a magnificent mosaic of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, Circassians and people of many faiths and lifestyles; And we have contributed to humanity, in countless fields. In Israel’s Declaration of Independence – along with extending our hand for peace – we have committed our nation to the values of liberty, equality, and justice, in faithful adherence to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
This is because we believe in the power of partnership – particularly partnership between nations and peoples– to heal and build. A partnership which we belong to – by merit, not by anyone’s grace. On this historic day, we must commit to joining hands to defeat darkness and hatred, and work together to ensure the building of a shared future. This is the vow we must share, all of us, the family of nations: That what happened once, will never happen again.
If I knew that tomorrow was the end of the world, I would plant a tree today. I would plant it with tears, but I would plant a tree.
Ladies and gentlemen, ninety-four year old Eva Arben defeated death three times. As a child in the Theresienstadt Ghetto. As a young girl who marched in a horrific death march from Auschwitz. And this year – as a citizen of Israel – under the barrage of thousands of rockets fired from Gaza to Israel, on her city – Ashkelon. This terror attack took her back eighty years. But Eva refused to leave her home. As she said to me just days ago, articulating profound words of faith: “If I knew that tomorrow was the end of the world, I would plant a tree today. I would plant it with tears, but I would plant a tree.”
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In the spirit of Eva, in the spirit of all heroic Holocaust survivors, we will remember the past, hold onto life, and never give up. We will continue planting tree after tree, today and tomorrow. Trees of life, of future, of hope. Trees that symbolize fervent faith in the human spirit triumphing over darkness, in spite of it all. I know the journey may be long, but I am full of hope – hope about us, about our partnership, and about the days yet to come.
May the memory of our sisters and brothers murdered in the Holocaust – be blessed and engraved upon the heart of all humanity for eternity! Am Yisrael Chai!