From the Liveblog of
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Mayor causes uproar by using Holocaust day speech to decry ‘atrocities’ in Gaza, ‘lust for revenge’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
In a Holocaust Remembrance Day speech, Hod Hasharon Mayor Amir Kochavi declares that “Jewish morality” dictates that Israelis “must not remain silent in the face of atrocities committed against people of other nationalities in the world, even if they are committed in our name.”
Noting that Hamas is still holding 59 hostages in Gaza, Kochavi says that “the lust for revenge, blood and destruction has not brought back to us the dead, nor the living.”
His remarks draw immediate criticism, both on social media and from coalition and opposition politicians.
“The embarrassing words of the mayor of Hod Hasharon are a spit in the face of Holocaust survivors — those who immigrated to the Land of Israel, established a state and survived the terrible massacre committed by ‘other peoples,'” says Culture Minister Miki Zohar — adding that he has “no doubt that the vast majority of Hod Hasharon residents repudiate these outrageous statements.”
“On Holocaust Remembrance Day, while 59 hostages languish in the hell of Gaza, the mayor of Hod Hasharon, Amir Kochavi, incites against the IDF and actually sides with the terrorists,” tweets Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman of the opposition, calling on Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, “whose party Kochavi is affiliated with, to condemn his words immediately.”
In a post on X, Kochavi decries the “ugly spin” being shared by his critics, stating that the condemnations “are intended to make people forget that there are 59 hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for 565 days by the prime minister on whose watch they were kidnapped.”
“They must be returned now, in one fell swoop. The dead for burial and the living for rehabilitation. Anything else is a distraction,” he writes.
זה מה שבחר להגיד אמש ראש עיריית הוד השרון אמיר כוכבי בטקס הרשמי של העירייה ליום הזיכרון לשואה: ״אל לנו להחריש מול זוועות כלפי בני לאומים אחרים בעולם – גם אם הן מתבצעות בשמנו״. (עמית סגל) pic.twitter.com/NaklfqkZrl
— חדשות המוקד (@hamoked_il) April 24, 2025
The Times of Israel Community.