War criminals and antisemites welcome at Yad Vashem
JVL Introduction
A visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum, is a requirement for international leaders and public figures on official visits to Israel, as per the Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic protocols.
“Over the years,” writes Orly Noy, “this rule has brought to this memorial site some of the most despicable leaders in the world, including war criminals and perpetrators of crimes against humanity, whose very presence at its gates is a searing insult to the victims of the Holocaust.”
South Africa’s John Vorster blazed a trail in 1976. Recently there was a military delegation of Myanmar’s junta responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.
Also Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and South Sudanese Parliament Speaker Anthony Lino Makana.
Yad Vashem say it’s not up to them, but to the Foreign Ministry. We only follow orders…
This article was originally published by +972 Magazine on Fri 24 Apr 2020. Read the original here.
Foreign Ministry to High Court: War criminals welcome at Yad Vashem
Neither the museum nor Israel’s Foreign Ministry think visits by war criminals and antisemites conflict with its mission to honor Holocaust victims.
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Further, apart from insisting on a prior record of common decency for invitees, we should point out that Yad Vashem is located (deliberately?) close to Deir Yassin. Should not those victims of the nakba be recognized amongst the atrocities rightly recorded and deplored at Yad Vashem? Otherwise, some might suspect that Yad Vashem is no more than a demand for special privilege for Jews in general and Zionists in particular?
In two minds about this one. Do these evil people actually learn anything from their visit? They are, after all, confronted by irrefutable evidence. Hungarian Dictator Victor Orban is an anti Semitic racist responsible for many deeply disturbing things, but he can hardly have supported Miklos Worthy during WWII, even if he admires him now.