Israel's UN delegates criticised for wearing yellow stars as 'symbol of pride'

The chairman of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center on Tuesday criticised the country's delegation to the United Nations for putting on yellow stars, a symbol of Nazi persecution of Jews, during a meeting of the Security Council.

The Nazis forced Jews in Germany and some European countries it occupied during World War Two to wear yellow stars on their clothing as part of a programme of persecution that culminated in the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered.

Memories of the Holocaust have been close to the surface in Israel and beyond since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters killed some 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel -- the worst loss of Jewish life in a day since the Nazi genocide.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders have drawn direct comparisons between the Hamas attack and the Nazi persecution of the Jews but the spat over the use of the yellow star symbol underlines how sensitive comparisons with the Holocaust remain for many.

Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, and fellow delegates put yellow stars with the words "Never Again" written on them on their jackets during a debate on Monday about the subsequent war on Hamas launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Erdan said the stars were "a symbol of pride, a reminder that we swore to fight back to defend ourselves", adding that antisemites had been empowered and hatred of Jews was growing in many countries.

But Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, which is recognised around the world as an authoritative source of Holocaust scholarship and place of remembrance, said the act dishonoured victims of the genocide as well as the State of Israel.

"The yellow patch symbolises the helplessness of the Jewish people and being at the mercy of others," he said on social media platform X.

"Today we have an independent country and a strong army. We are masters of our destiny. Today we put a blue-white flag on the lapel, not a yellow patch."