Jews targeted for being Jews – Netanyahu

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JERUSALEM

“Preserving the memory of the Holocaust is more important today than ever, for in this period of resurgent and sometimes violent anti-Semitism, it is commemorations like these that remind us all where the oldest and most enduring hatred can lead,” Netanyahu said in a statement released on Tuesday evening.

“Around the world, Jewish communities are increasingly living in fear. We see anti-Semitism directed against individual Jews, and we also see this hatred directed against the collective Jew, against the Jewish state. Israel is targeted with the same slurs and the same libels that were levelled against the Jewish people since time immemorial.”

The Israeli prime minister said that “Islamic extremists incorporate the most outrageous anti-Semitism into their murderous doctrines”, citing the Gaza Strip, Syria and Iran. He also criticised the “obsession with the Jews – the fixation on the Jewish state.”

He said the fact that there is an independent Jewish state means “we can protect ourselves and defend our freedom”.

He added:“When a state like Iran and movements like Daesh (Islamic State] and Hamas openly declare their goal of committing another Holocaust, we will not let it happen. But Europe and the rest of the world must stand up together with us. Not for our sake, for theirs.” (JTA)