JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister warned Sunday that the nation must not dismiss Iran’s threats to its existence, drawing a parallel at a ceremony in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, a mass murder that reverberates more than six decades later.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed hundreds of Holocaust survivors, diplomats and Israeli leaders at Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial center.
“The threat against our existence and our future is not theoretical,” he said. “It must be stopped.”
At the memorial ceremony, six Holocaust survivors lit symbolic torches to mark the beginning of the annual observance.
At midmorning today, air- raid sirens were to sound around the country to mark two minutes of silence in honor of the victims, followed by ceremonies called “Each Person Has a Name,” in which people read out the names of victims at parliament and other public locations.
