- Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELIS OBSERVE HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
- Date: 6th May 2005
- Summary: (W2) JERUSALEM (MAY 05, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. SLV SOLDIERS COMMEMORATING HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY AT YAD VASHEM MUSEUM; PEOPLE OBSERVING SILENCE; SOLDIERS OBSERVING SILENCE 0.12 2. SLV PAN ISRAELIS STOPPING ON STREETS IN CITY CENTRE TO OBSERVE SILENCE 0.48 (W2)TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MAY 05, 2005) (REUTERS) 3. MV ISRAELIS STANDING OUTSIDE
- Embargoed: 21st May 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JERUSALEM/TEL AVIV,ISRAEL/NEVE DEKLAM SETTLEMENT, GAZA STRIP
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA6S2UI9WWJKI8DW4F5JKCD3X3M
- Story Text: Israelis observe Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Israelis stood in silence on Thursday (May 5, 2005) in towns
throughout Israel, in Jerusalem, and in Gaza settlements in
observance of national Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Polish leaders and some 20,000
people from around the world are expected to take part in the annual walk
between the former Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps, honouring the six
million Jews killed in the Nazi Holocaust during World War Two on Thursday the
official remembrance day.
It would be the largest ever March of the Living along the
three-kilometre (1.9-mile) stretch and coincide with the 60th anniversary of
the liberation of the adjacent camps.
A Tel Aviv University report released on Wednesday found that
anti-Semitic incidents had increased by 68 percent in Britain and almost 40
percent in France last year.
Calling 2004 "the most violent year in the last 15 years",
the university researchers traced a 39 percent increase in violent attacks
against Jews world-wide compared with 2003.
Sharon will be commemorating the Holocaust with Polish leaders on what
is Israel's official memorial day, highlighting warm relations the two
countries have enjoyed since the fall of Communism in Poland 15 years ago.
Israel has agreed to iron out one area of tension with Poland fanned by
annual trips by thousands of Israeli students to ex-concentration camps and
Holocaust memorials there.
Polish officials have urged Israel to broaden the itinerary of the
visits to include meetings with Polish teenagers and classes about the
thriving Jewish community that lived in Poland for centuries before the
Holocaust.
Israel and Poland plan a joint committee to arrange visits by Israeli
youth. Israel also says it will broaden its school curriculum to include
lessons on Poland's rich Jewish past.
Around 3 million of Poland's 3.5 million Jews were killed during the
Holocaust. About four million European Jews in total were killed in the six
Nazi death camps on Polish soil.
Israel sees relations with Warsaw as a strategic asset especially since
Poland entered the European Union last year.
Israeli officials say that Poland's sympathetic stance towards Israel
will help balance what they consider to be a pro-Arab tilt by many West
European countries in the EU.
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