Israel PM says international anti-Semitism spreading

Editor's Note:  See next article "Anti-semitic incidents dropped 46 per cent in 2010, report finds"


XinHuan

JERUSALEM, May 1 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that anti-Semitism is once again manifesting throughout the world, as lessons of the Holocaust " have not been learned."

"A renewed anti-Semitism is spreading," Netanyahu told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting, according to a government press release.

"Various forces are joining together and flooding the world with anti-Semitism. The hatred of Jews and the denial of their existence have turned into hatred of the Jewish State and denial of its existence," he added.

The prime minister's comments came hours before the official state ceremony in Jerusalem that marks the beginning of Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day.

The Israeli cabinet on Sunday unanimously voted to establish an umbrella organization that will represent Holocaust survivors in Israel and promote awarding them financial benefits, in a bid to assist thousands that live in poverty.

In a separate decision, a budget of 25 million shekels (about 7. 5 million U.S. dollars) was approved for the renovation of pavilion 27, the main Jewish exhibition at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, whose inauguration is expected in the summer of 2012.

Meanwhile, Israel's Yad Vashem (Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority) on Sunday launched a national campaign encouraging citizens to donate personal Holocaust-period items.

The Prime Minister's Bureau, Education Ministry and Senior Citizens Ministry are also part of the project, which aims to preserve historical evidence of the annihilation of six million European Jews at the hands of the Nazis in World War II.

The project is launched amid fresh data on the dwindling numbers of Holocaust survivors living in Israel.

According to official figures released by the Jerusalem-based Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, 13,000 of them passed away over the past year -- around 1,000 every month. Of the 208,000 survivors currently alive, about two thirds are expected to still be around by 2015.