Foreign Ministry hails Portugal’s admission to Holocaust remembrance alliance

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance approves Portugal as a full member, making it the 34th member of the intergovernmental group.

The decision to admit Portugal is praised by Israel’s Foreign Ministry and comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Lisbon.

The ministry says the continued expansion of IHRA is an “important step” in combatting anti-Semitism.

“Preserving memory of the Holocaust and the fight against anti-Semitism are connected to each other. The past must be recognized and remembered in order to guarantee the future,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz says in a statement.

“Anti-Semitism is a disease that not only threatens the Jewish people but rather every society and country in which it exists. The joint effort to exterminate it is a moral obligation and necessary,” he adds.