 of a downtrodden nation, the lives of millions, men, women and children that had come to an end in their stead, only crumbling stones. In Warsaw, home to over half a million Jews before the Holocaust, only the Jewish cemetery remained to attest to the vibrant life that had flourished before the advent of the Nazi X-Men. The only Jewish synagogue in Warsaw that was still standing, the Nogik synagogue, a few dozen souls gathered, snatched from the jaws of carnage. A bloodstained Torah skull was handed to my grandfather by the survivors to be taken to the land of Israel for internal memory. The former cantor of the great synagogue, Moshe Kosevitzky, stood to recite the traditional Jewish prayer for the departed, El Malerachamim, O God of Compassion. Only this time, the wording of the prayer was different than usual, because my grandfather rewrote it so that it might express the pain, the loss and the grief in the wake of the chilling destruction that is unfolded before his eyes. He rewrote it and appealed to God to grant perfect rest to our brothers and sisters, victims of the horrific Holocaust after the thousand painful deathly blows that they have suffered on this earth. I stand before you today as the president of the State of Israel, the democratic nation-state of the Jewish people, but my heart and thoughts are with my brothers and sisters killed in the Holocaust, whose only crime was their Jewishness and the humanity they bore. Beloved and cherished, never parted in life or death. They dared to hope and dream even in the midst of devastation. In their memory, I will begin my remarks with this traditional prayer. El Malerachamim, O God, who are full of compassion, grant perfect rest on the wings of the Divine Presence, on the pinnacles of the Holy and the Pure, to the souls of the 6 million Jews, victims of the Holocaust, who were killed, suffocated, burned and martyred by the German murderers and their accomplices from other nations. Therefore, may the merciful one shelter them forever in the safety of his wings and bind their souls in the eternal bonds of life. God is their legacy and may they rest in peace in the Garden of Eden and may they stand for their fate and let us say Amen. Madam President of the European Parliament, Roberto Metzola, Madam Commissioner of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, honored members of the European Parliament, ambassadors, members of Knesset, distinguished guests. On the afternoon of 23 July 1944, the Jews of the Greek island of Rhodes were forced to stand in a long line facing the western wall of the old city. The rest of the city's population was forbidden to step outside. The Nazis were not sated by the elimination of the glorious communities of Saloniki and others, home to 98% of Greece's Jews. And so, from that holding site, over 1600 Jews from Rhodes were marched and loaded into three old cargo vessels led by SS officers. For eight days and nights, in a nightmarish voyage, a monstrous odyssey, the Jews of Rhodes were at sea. The heat was intense. The food was meager. Seven people were killed during the voyage. Their bodies were thrown into the sea. Another ship was sent to the island of Kos to pick up close to 100 Jews. Yet another ship was sent to the island of Leros, a small and remote island, to hunt down the only Jew who lived there. Just one man. That was the whole Jewish community of Leros. One Jew, solitary, alone. The last one. His name was Daniel Rachamim. Rachamim is the Hebrew word for compassion. Rachamim, as in the prayer I just recited. Rachamim, compassion he never received. This seemingly small quote-out-quote horrifying hunting expedition of the Nazis for a single person tells the story of the entire Holocaust, the story of the totality of annihilation, eradication, the story of the monstrous deranged obsession to totally exterminate a nation with roots stretching deep into history. Such an inseparable and essential part of Europe, the Jewish people. Why did he take a single person? Why go through the trouble? asked Daniel Rachamim. He didn't know that for the Nazis, his mere existence was a crime punishable by death. And that, in his case, being was a crime. The people aboard these ships reached Athens after a journey and from there they were loaded onto cattle wagons, the destination Auschwitz extermination camp and the purpose of annihilation. Daniel Rachamim, the last Jew from Lyros, rounded off this procession. There are some dates in history that overspill the boundaries of time and become themselves a memory. In 1945, the 27th of January he went from being just another date to becoming a memorial site when in the afternoon the gates of hell were burst open. Five years too late, the Auschwitz extermination camp, the largest death factory in human history was liberated by the soldiers of the Red Army and stopped operating. Snow covered the blood-drenched soil in Buchenwald, Dachau, Terezinstadt, Bergen-Belsen and so many other places, their horrors continued for many more months until their liberation. My father, the sixth president of the State of Israel, Chaim Herzog, was an officer in the British Army at the time. He was born in Ireland. He was privileged to land in Normandy across the Rhine and take part in the liberation of the Netherlands, Belgium and northern Germany. I shall never forget how he described to me the horrors that unfolded before his eyes as one of the first liberators of the death camps, including Bergen-Belsen, the human skeletons in their striped pajamas, the hell on earth, the stench, the heart of darkness, millions of worlds, one-third of the Jewish people were wiped out in the killing pits, in the gas chambers, in the furnaces, in the death camps. The whole thing is simply beyond comprehension, wrote a young Eti Hilsum from Holland in her diary before she was murdered in Auschwitz in 43. The skies are full of birds. Their purple lupine stand up so regally and peacefully. The sun is shining on my face and right before our eyes, mass murder. In the Nazi despicable final solution, they sought to rip at Europe's own flesh and blood, for just as humanity couldn't be what it is without Europe, couldn't be what it is without the Jews. Can anyone imagine a Europe without the theories of Sigmund Freud, without the genius of Albert Einstein or Emy Nutter? Is there such a thing as Europe without the echoes of Karl Marx's thought? How can one conceive of European philosophy without Spinoza or Henri Bergson or the spirit of European culture without Modelliani and Kafka? However, antisemitism, like an autoimmune disease, made Europe a part of its own DNA and a shared millennia-long history was erased, as if it has never been. Members of the European Parliament, the Holocaust was not born in a vacuum. We must never forget that the Nazi death machine would not have succeeded in realizing its vision had it not met soil fertilized with Jew hatred, which is as old as time itself. The stereotypical depiction of Jews had struck roots through Europe for centuries and generations before the rise of the Nazis. Nazi ideology intensified traditional antisemitism and primordial fears fanned the flames of hatred. Even before a single extermination camp was built in the minds of the masses, the Jew was already human dust, subhuman. It is precisely for this reason, precisely because the Holocaust was predicated on much older antisemitic foundations flourished in Europe, that this dark abyss is a terrible, profound, and compelling lesson for the whole of Europe. When we stand together here in the beating heart of the European Union, we understand well the mission of memory that we all share. We recognize that at the memorial site to which we make pilgrimage, we must remember not only the Holocaust and the destruction, but also the sacred alliance forged alongside this horrific disaster to sanctify the memory of the victims, to prioritize their welfare of the survivors who are still with us, to teach and educate in light of the lessons of the historic catastrophe and to prevent any repetition of these ghastly crimes. Today, we see movements on the extremes of European and world politics which proudly raise the ugly banner of antisemitism and once more threaten to turn democratic and civilized societies into ones that devour their own people. Unfortunately, the picture is disturbing, deeply disturbing. Antisemitic discourse festers not only within dark regimes, but within the heartlands of the free democratic West. Jew hatred still exists. Antisemitism still exists. Holocaust denial still exists. The latest reports point to a new record of hatred as antisemitism continues to don new guises. This time it is active on virtual platforms as well. It's fueled by them. And the viral antisemitism is spreading at a record pace at the click of a button. The distance between a viral video and a physical attack hardly exists. The distance between a Facebook post and the smashing of headstones in a cemetery is shorter than we think. Deranged tweets can kill. They really can. Antisemites draw inspiration and ideas from virtual platforms. They're brainwashed and enraged as a result of unchecked and unrestrained online discourse. I stand before you. You who in your identities, positions and beliefs represent Europe's impressive diversity at the height of this sacred gathering and in the heart of the place that has always championed partnership in the war against darkness and evil and the joining of hands to uphold our most basic core moral and human values. And I call upon you, elected officials of Europe, do not stand by. You must read the warning signs, detect the symptoms of the pandemic of antisemitism and fight at all costs. You must ensure that every Jew wanting to live a full Jewish life in your countries may do so safely and fearlessly. You and your countries must use every tool in your disposal, education and legislation, security and enforcement to deter and eradicate hatred, racism and antisemitism. You must instill the understanding across Europe that the Jewish people's right to state the state of Israel, which is why, among other things, you must move to full adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. And from this plenary, I wish to underscore the fine line between criticism of the state of Israel and negation of the state of Israel. It is of course okay to criticize the state I head. It is okay to criticize us and it is okay to disagree with us. Our country is open to criticism like all members of the family of nations. And Israel is exposed to any criticism as other countries. And Israel democracy anyway has self-criticism. However, and this is the critical difference. We cannot have criticism of the state of Israel become an negation of the very existence of the state of Israel. The nation state of the Jewish people is recognized by the institutions of the international community. Casting doubt on the nation state of Jewish people to exist is not legitimate diplomacy. It is antisemitism in the full sense of the word. And it must be thoroughly uprooted. The rule is simple. The rule is simple. The criticism of us must pass the basic test of fairness and integrity. And it must not cross the line into dehumanization or delegitimization. The state of Israel rolls like a phoenix out of the ashes and the terrible destruction and realized our historic right to a state of our whole ancient homeland. Once we will celebrate the 75th Independence Day of our country whose immense contribution to humanity and to Europe, in particular in countless fields including science, agriculture, energy, security, technology, culture, health and education and so much more. This is an established fact. We have withstood enormous challenges over these years. We've absorbed waves of Jewish immigration from over 100 countries. We've established a resilient and democratic society comprised of an unparalleled human mosaic of Jews and Arabs, people of every religion and faith. We've proven that we can take any action, any time, any place to protect our citizens and the whole Jewish people. We have courageously weathered attacks by our enemies and no less important, we've extended a hand in peace and have fought unprecedented alliance and peace accords including the Abraham Accords which have transformed and will transform the Middle East and I pray for the day we can reach peace with our Palestinian neighbors as well. An essential and fundamental part of our state's growth rests on the close ties and ironclad alliances with European states and the institutions of the European Union. Israel and Europe are bound together in an unbreakable bond. Our shared interests and even more so our shared values dictate our present and shape our future. Liberty, equality, justice, peace. These are the fundamental values enshrined that the creation of independence of the state of Israel will wish and uphold at any cost and these are also the core values of the European Union. I stand here not only in the name of the past but also for the sake of the future, for the sake of our shared prosperity so that we may apply in practice out of their understanding in true partnership we can overcome challenges and realize opportunities. I call upon you and your nations to move to broaden and strengthen our partnership. There is so much we can and must do together for our sake, for the sake of the future and for the sake of the future generations. This is a time of trial for all of us if we believe that the voice of justice has not been silenced. If we believe in another more compassionate humanity we must work together as a single community determined and cohesive against the forces of darkness and hatred that threaten us. As president of the state of Israel I speak first and foremost of the Iranian regime which not only publicly calls for the complete annihilation of my country but is also murdering its own countrymen and women demanding liberty, human civil rights. Iran is talking civil wars throughout the Middle East playing an active and lethal role in the war in Ukraine against the citizens of Ukraine and develop WMD on the way to dramatically threatening the stability of the entire globe and to conclude my friends until Eti Hilsum the young poet I quoted at the beginning of my speech was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Birkenau a month and a half before her 30th birthday she kept writing in her diary Eti wrote about the orphan children forced to grow up too early about the love of Man Ken that has withered and about how much she wanted to live in her beautiful moving words she wrote one day we shall be building a whole new world against every new outrage and very fresh horror we shall put up one more piece of love and goodness love and goodness that was her dying wish her legacy that is our duty to pursue all of us together and in the words of the Jewish literature may it be your will king to whom peace belongs to set peace among Israel your people and may peace grow until peace is drawn upon every person in the world that's the prayer may the memory of the victims of the Holocaust be eternally etched in our hearts and may their souls be bound in the bond of life Amen You've just been listening to Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressing the European Parliament on Holocaust remembrance they they're touching on the history of anti-Semitism sharing personal anecdotes as well as his personal history about his grandfather also speaking about the anti-Semitic foundations that flourished in Europe and as well finishing up with speaking about Iran as well We're going to bring in I-24 News International Affairs Correspondent Batia Leventhal Batia you just heard that extensive speech from the Israeli President give us your thoughts on it now they're going to a minute of silence in the European Parliament as well talk to us about your thoughts about this speech Extensive but incredibly powerful something that Israeli leaders have in common is their ability to give a good narration and a good way of speaking they are brilliant but brilliant artists and the fact I think that this was done in Hebrew and then translated into languages so that everyone in the European Parliament had an understanding within their own language, their own culture again we've been speaking about this all day that Israel and the European Union have shared values have shared interests, have shared history there is no better place that Isaac Herzog could have delivered a speech of this magnitude on this topic than at the European Parliament and I think at least something that I was trying to assess in my own analysis watching this was something that Danny Ayalon touched on just before we went to the speech Education is so much more than simply just trying to teach someone about the history it also comes back to accountability in an area like Europe as you mentioned the biggest graveyard of the Jewish people we look at what's happened in past events or at least in recent events for example an EU member like Poland that completely white washes or at least attempts to whitewash its role in the Holocaust and its accountability and so I think that there was also a matter of speaking not just to countries in terms of the policies that they can implement now to have a sense of education but I think there was even a deeper sense of not necessarily pointing out but saying there has to be some accountability there has to be some rectifying of a situation that whether or not was brought on by a specific country definitely extended to other countries and I think that again could not have been a more powerful and present place by Isaac Erdogan to deliver a speech like this than the European Parliament and it also just speaks volumes to how good of an orator he is and how powerful a speech is when you have a standing ovation