Netanyahu heckled at Yad Vashem wreath-laying ceremony
During annual Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration, protester demands PM’s resignation, says he ‘failed in a very serious way to protect the people of Israel’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
A protester demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation disrupted Monday morning’s Holocaust Remembrance Day wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem.
Video from the event at Israel’s national Holocaust museum and memorial in Jerusalem showed a man identified by Ynet news as Ami Schechter yelling at the prime minister to resign.
“We must not descend into the abyss again. What else is necessary for you to go home?” he called out. “Let the people of Israel remember their abandoned sons,” he added, in reference to the hostages held in Gaza since October 7.
“I had no hesitation. What is very clear is that he failed in a very serious way to protect the people of Israel,” Ynet quoted Schechter as explaining.
An overwhelming majority of Israelis believe that Netanyahu must take responsibility for the staggering failures that led to Hamas’s devastating onslaught on October 7, when the terror group’s forces surged across the border, killing some 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, and taking 252 hostage.
Sixty-two percent of Israelis — both Jewish and Arab — believe it is time for those responsible for the failures of October 7 to resign from their positions, according to an Israel Democracy Institute poll conducted last month.
מחאה בטקס ביד ושם: צעקות לעבר ראש הממשלה נתניהו – "יזכור עם ישראל את בניו שהופקרו. שיילך הביתה". תיעודhttps://t.co/RQVVrf4Ar0
צילום: לפי סעיף 27א' pic.twitter.com/hXbK0GnZLv
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While Netanyahu has faced months of protests over the government’s continued inability to bring home the remaining hostages from Gaza, during the opening ceremony at Yad Vashem on Sunday night the premier declared that he was “determined to release them all – all of them – from this dark inferno, those who are still alive and the dead.”
“We are obligated to bring them home, to their families, and end this ongoing nightmare. Our hearts are with them,” he said.
The previous evening, the families of hostages held in Gaza rallied in Tel Aviv to demand a deal, highlighting the plight of captives related to Holocaust survivors ahead of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the organizers of the rally, said the demonstration would be held under the banner “Never again is now,” ahead of the memorial day for the Holocaust.
“In the aftermath of October 7, the phrase ‘Never Again’ has taken on an additional, relevant and pressing meaning,” organizers said.
Netanyahu stated on Sunday that Israel will not agree to an end to the campaign and the withdrawal of IDF troops from the Strip, and will not accept a hostage-truce deal with Hamas that includes a requirement to end the war.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
