Isaac HERZOG, President of Israel is invited to give an address to the plenary on the occasion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, in the EP in Brussels. Extracts from the address of Isaac HERZOG, opening speech of Roberta METSOLA, EP President, and ambiance shots of the ceremony. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

plenary session

EU - Israel (T)

ceremony

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

Holocaust remembrance (T)

president's agenda

HERZOG, Isaac

International Holocaust Remembrance Day: extracts from the address by Isaac HERZOG, President of Israel and ambiance shots of the ceremony

Title: International Holocaust Remembrance Day: extracts from the address by Isaac HERZOG, President of Israel and ambiance shots of the ceremony (EBS) 

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, Every year around the 27th of January, the world remembers the millions of innocent men, women and children who were murdered in history&rsquo;s greatest crime. A crime intended to wipe off a people from the earth. A crime designed to inflict horror on generations. A crime that has shaped our modern European project, into an embodiment of the timeless promise: Never again.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, President Herzog, as I said in Israel, the bond between the people of Europe and the people of Israel has been forged in the horror of our common history. A bond whose strength lies in its openness, honesty, straightforwardness &ndash; even criticism &ndash; but a bond that has and will withstand the test of time. And yet, our peoples share more than history and a promise to remember. We also share a common destiny - and a future that will endure.

Musical interlude by Jenő Lisztes, cimbalom "Lament music by the king of gipsies: 36. Laci R&aacute;cz" (4 shots)

SOUNDBITE (Hebrew), Isaac HERZOG, President of Israel, I stand before you today as the President of the State of Israel, the democratic nation-state of the Jewish People, but my heart and thoughts are with my brothers and sisters killed in the Holocaust, whose only crime was their Jewishness and the humanity they bore. Beloved and cherished, never parted, in life or in death!

SOUNDBITE (Hebrew), Isaac HERZOG, President of Israel, Ladies and gentlemen, there are some dates in history that overspill the boundaries of time and become, themselves, memorial sites. In 1945, the 27thof January went from being just another date to becoming a memorial site, when in the afternoon, the gates of hell were burst open. Five years too late, the Auschwitz extermination camp, the largest death factory in human history, was liberated by the soldiers of the Red Army and stopped operating.

SOUNDBITE (Hebrew), Isaac HERZOG, President of Israel, As president of the State of Israel, I speak first and foremost of the Iranian regime, which not only publicly calls for the complete annihilation of my country but is also murdering its own countrymen and women, who are demanding liberty and human and civil rights, stoking civil wars throughout the Middle East, playing an active and lethal role in the war in Ukraine, and developing weapons of mass destruction on the way to dramatically threatening the stability of the entire globe.

SOUNDBITE (Hebrew), Isaac HERZOG, President of Israel, May the memory of the victims of the Holocaust be eternally etched in our hearts. May their souls be bound in the bond of life.

Applause of the MEPs in the hemicycle (8 shots)