Israeli President Shimon Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the world Sunday not to repeat the "indifference" that cost millions of lives during the Holocaust and instead to condemn Iran's nuclear development, dpa reported.
"I call upon all the enlightened nations to stand up and condemn the Iranian destructive intentions and to act with real determination to stop its nuclear armament," Netanyahu said at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in the Holocaust museum of Jerusalem, Yad Vashem.
"The Iranian leaders are busily working on the development of nuclear weapons and openly voice their will to destroy Israel. The strong protest, which would be expected, does not come," Netanyahu added.
The ceremony, marking the start of a solemn day for the Jewish people, was attended by dignitaries, survivors, children of survivors and their families. Six survivors lit six torches representing the 6 million murdered Jews.
Israeli President Shimon Peres also asked the world "not to repeat the indifference that cost millions of lives."
"The ears of the UN have to be attuned to the threats of extermination" from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Israel, the Israeli president warned.
"Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of those capable of mass destruction, with voices encouraging that destruction, that is the most perilous combination to world peace," Peres said.
"To establish an independent Jewish state able to defend itself and to take threats of extermination, Holocaust denial and terror mongers seriously, are the two imperatives imposed by the Shoah," Peres concluded.
Israeli Army chief Gabi Ashkenazi vowed earlier Sunday that "never again (will) an advocate of evil ... dictate the future of the Jewish people," and that Jews will never again lack the means of defence or depend "on the benevolence of others."
Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day is the national commemoration day of the Soah in Israel. Memorial ceremonies are being held throughout the country from Sunday to Monday evening.
Yad Vashem is to open a special exhibition called The Voice of the Survivors Monday focusing in the different ways that survivors have kept alive for six decades the memory of lost communities, families and individuals who perished in the Shoah.
Two minutes of silence will be held Monday morning in Israel. A siren will be the only sound during those two minutes in which most of the people stop their activities, their work and even the traffic on the road in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
...