Israel

Israel remembers the 6 million

April 21, 2009 08:51
AP090419010161
1 min read

Most of Israel came to a standstill earlier today to remember the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust.

Traffic came to a halt and people stood in silence as air raid sirens rang out for two minutes. Many bars and restaurants didn’t open.

President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attended the opening of a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem on Monday night. They pledged that there would never be a second Holocaust.

Mr Peres said the appearance at the Durban 2 conference of Iranian Presdient Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was "a deplorable disgrace".
Mr Netanyahu also mentioned the Geneva conference and criticized Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, who met Ahmadinejad on Sunday.

"We will not let the Holocaust deniers perpetrate another holocaust on the Jewish people," he added. "This is the highest responsibility of the State of Israel and of myself as prime minister."

There was one lighter moment. In Tel Aviv, a malfunction in the siren system caused the siren to last for an extra four minutes.