Israel ambassador wears yellow Star of David, saying ‘Never again is now’
Israel’s United Nations Ambassador Gilad Erdan was sharply critical of the Security Council’s failure to condemn Hamas’ attacks and asked members on Monday night: “Why are the humanitarian needs of Gazans the sole issue, the sole issue you are focused on?”
Recalling his grandfather who survived Nazi death camps while his wife and seven children perished in the Auschwitz gas chamber, Erdan told the council he will wear a yellow star — just as Hitler made his grandfather and other Jews wear during World War II — “until you condemn the atrocities of Hamas and demand the immediate release of our hostages.”
“When his babies were sent to the gas chambers, the world stayed silent. When their bodies were burned along with millions of other Jewish children, the world was silent,” Erdan said. “Today, after innocent Jewish babies were burned alive, this council is still silent. Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years. Some of you have forgotten why this body was established.”
The ambassador then put a large six-pointed yellow Star of David saying “Never Again” on his suit jacket, as did other Israeli diplomats sitting behind him, and said: “We walk with the yellow star as a symbol of pride, a reminder that we swore to fight back to defend ourselves. Never again is now.”
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., urged the divided Security Council — which has rejected four resolutions that would have responded to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks and the ongoing war — to come together, saying “the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is growing more dire by the day.”
However, the chairman of Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, derided Israel’s ambassador for wearing the Star of David, saying it “belittles both the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel.”
“The yellow patch symbolizes the helplessness of the Jewish people when it was at the mercy of others,” Dayan posted on X, formerly called Twitter. “Today we have an independent state and a strong army. We are masters of our fate. Today we put on our lapels the blue and white flag (of Israel), not a yellow patch.”
