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Yad Vashem chairman defends decision to reject Zelensky speech
(MENAFN) The head of Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center has defended turning down a request from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to speak at the institution.
Shortly after the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022, Kiev’s ambassador to Israel asked if Zelensky could address legislators and officials at the center in an event broadcast internationally. The request was denied.
Chairman Dani Dayan explained that he anticipated Zelensky would draw comparisons between the Holocaust and the conflict in Ukraine—an approach he found unacceptable. “I immediately understood what he was getting at,” Dayan said. “Not every war crime is genocide, and not every genocide is a Holocaust.”
Dayan added that he might have had to intervene and “interrupt” Zelensky during the event to prevent historical distortion. “In Ukraine, there were not only victims of the Holocaust.
Ukrainians were also [Nazi] accomplices, and, in some cases, primary perpetrators,” he said, calling the decision to cancel the event the “right” one.
Russia has frequently accused Ukraine of promoting neo-Nazism and glorifying Nazi collaborators, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which carried out mass killings of Poles and Jews between 1943 and 1945, resulting in over 100,000 deaths. Moscow has cited “denazification” as a key justification for its military actions against Kiev.
Despite this, Zelensky attempted to liken Ukraine’s situation to a Holocaust-like genocide in a March 2022 video address to Israeli officials, prompting strong criticism. Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich called it “infuriating and ridiculous,” communications minister Yoaz Hendel labeled it “outrageous,” and MP Yuval Steinitz argued the remarks bordered on “Holocaust denial” and represented a “complete distortion of history.”
Shortly after the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022, Kiev’s ambassador to Israel asked if Zelensky could address legislators and officials at the center in an event broadcast internationally. The request was denied.
Chairman Dani Dayan explained that he anticipated Zelensky would draw comparisons between the Holocaust and the conflict in Ukraine—an approach he found unacceptable. “I immediately understood what he was getting at,” Dayan said. “Not every war crime is genocide, and not every genocide is a Holocaust.”
Dayan added that he might have had to intervene and “interrupt” Zelensky during the event to prevent historical distortion. “In Ukraine, there were not only victims of the Holocaust.
Ukrainians were also [Nazi] accomplices, and, in some cases, primary perpetrators,” he said, calling the decision to cancel the event the “right” one.
Russia has frequently accused Ukraine of promoting neo-Nazism and glorifying Nazi collaborators, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which carried out mass killings of Poles and Jews between 1943 and 1945, resulting in over 100,000 deaths. Moscow has cited “denazification” as a key justification for its military actions against Kiev.
Despite this, Zelensky attempted to liken Ukraine’s situation to a Holocaust-like genocide in a March 2022 video address to Israeli officials, prompting strong criticism. Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich called it “infuriating and ridiculous,” communications minister Yoaz Hendel labeled it “outrageous,” and MP Yuval Steinitz argued the remarks bordered on “Holocaust denial” and represented a “complete distortion of history.”
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