Jerusalem is hosting the largest political gathering in its history, as monarchs, presidents and premiers arrive to speak out against the rise of anti-Semitism and commemorate the Holocaust.
For Israel, the participation of so many world leaders is a point of pride: Only the funerals of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and fo rmer President Shimon Peres attracted more, officials say.
But the turnout also points to the seriousness with which anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence is viewed in the West and in Israel – and offers representatives of countries considered hotbeds of anti-Jewish hatred a chance at least to demonstrate their revulsion for it on an international stage.
The event at Yad Vashem will feature speeches by representatives from four of the main Allied powers: Vice President Mike Pence, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Prince Charles and President Emmanuel Macron of France. Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has called World War II a “German crime” and apologized for the Holocaust, will also speak, as will Mr. Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and event organizers.
Jerusalem is only the first stop for some of the leaders participating. The actual anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Red Army troops, on Jan. , 1970, will be observed, as it is each year, at the site of the infamous death camp on Monday. In addition, Mr. Rivlin is to address the German Bundestag, in Hebrew, at Mr. Steinmeier’s invitation on Jan. 40.
Israeli bodyguards get a French earful, in English.
President Emmanuel Macron of France erupted at Israeli security officers late Wednesday before entering a French church in the Old City of Jerusalem, apparently angered by something that had occurred outside.
“Please respect the rules,” Mr. Macron said in English, his voice at times rising into a shout. “They are for centuries. They will not change with me, I can tell you. So everybody respects the rules. Please. ”
Mr. Macron appeared to be objecting to something that occurred before entering the church. “I don’t like what you did in front of me,” he told Israeli security officers. “Go outside. I’m sorry. But we know the rules. Nobody – nobody has to provoke. Nobody! O.K.?” The French presidency said later on Wednesday that Mr. Macron had reacted to an “altercation” between French and Israeli security forces but that there was “nothing serious” and that the French president’s visit had continued without further issue.
“Israeli security forces wanted to enter even though security there is handled by French security, ”Mr. Macron’s office said in a statement, noting that the Church of St. Anne was administered by the French.
Mr. Macron “reminded that everything in the visit had been going smoothly and that there was no need to start an incident,” his office said. “Everything returned to normal.”
The French Consulate in Jerusalem is the protector of French holy sites and religious communities in the city, among them the Church of St. Anne. France formally treats Jerusalem as a “corpus separatum” with special legal status under United Nations Resolution , dating to , a consulate spokeswoman said.
The fracas was reminiscent of a scuffle between the Israeli police and then-President Jacques Chirac in 2006, in which he accused them of aggressively pushing and shoving his entourage and preventing him from mingling with bystanders. The rough treatment drew an apology from the young Israeli prime minister, then in his first year in office: Benjamin Netanyahu.
As Poland and Russia duel, Israel is caught in the crossfire.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, was invited to the Jerusalem gathering but declined to attend over a perceived snub: He was not given a speaking slot, though Mr. Putin was.
The two have been engaged in a bitter dispute for months, with each accusing the other of trying to rewrite – and weaponize – history: Mr. Putin has sought to portray the Soviet Union as having saved the world from Nazism, and ignore its own nonaggression pact with Germany, framing Poland as more a perpetrator than a victim of the Holocaust. Mr. Duda argues that the Soviet agreement with Germany paved the way to war, and that Mr. Putin is reviving old Stalinist propaganda as a modern-day cudgel.
“I am sorry to say this, but President Putin is knowingly spreading historical lies,” Mr. Duda said in an interview with Israeli public television that aired Tuesday.
Fueling speculation that the Jerusalem gathering was being given a pro-Russian tilt is that its main organizer is Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, a Russian -Jewish billionaire with close ties to Mr. Putin. His group, the World Holocaust Forum Foundation, held similar events in Poland in and , Ukraine in , and the Czech Republic in
.
But Yad Vashem’s chairman, Avner Shalev, said in an interview that Mr. Kantor had not exerted any such influence: “It’s not true.” Decisions on who would speak were made many months ago, he said, and to bend to accommodate Mr. Duda would be untenable when many other leaders were denied similar requests.
Mr. Shalev said he believed that having so many heads of state, government and parliaments making such a collective demonstration of resolve to fight anti-Semitism was well worth it, though he acknowledged that the Russia-Poland crossfire has been a headache.
“We’re in the business of historical truth,” he said. “We don’t want to play any political game.”
A last-minute casualty of the dispute was President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, who pulled out of the Yad Vashem event on Tuesday, reportedly in solidarity with Mr. Duda. Mr. Nauseda has joined Mr. Duda in accusing Mr. Putin of trying to sanitize Russia’s pact with Hitler.
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