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US officials call for Yad Vashem’s ‘independence’ amid reports that Netanyahu plans to fire Holocaust memorial’s director
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The top U.S. officials charged with combating antisemitism and Holocaust denial called on Israel to sustain the independence of Yad Vashem amid reports that its chair could be fired.
Public statements by Ellen Germain, the State Department’s special envoy on Holocaust issues, and Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, represent an unusual intervention in Israeli governance. They come as the Biden administration has expressed unease about the recent leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli media reported last week that Netanyahu’s government is planning on firing Dani Dayan, the incumbent chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial museum and research institute. Dayan was appointed under the previous government and does not come from Netanyahu’s political party. Yoav Kisch, Netanyahu’s education minister, has acknowledged his unhappiness with Dayan’s performance, but has so far denied plans to fire him.
“The U.S. values the crucial work of @YadVashem & its director’s leadership as we work together on Holocaust education, remembrance, & research,” Germain said on Saturday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Germain’s job, created more than two decades ago to encourage compliance with Holocaust compensation, has transitioned in recent years into combating Holocaust denial. “Maintaining the independence of such institutions around the world is key as we face efforts to distort/deny the facts of the Holocaust.”
Lipstadt, a noted Holocaust historian, quoted German’s tweet on Sunday. “My research and advocacy about the Holocaust dates back to the 1980s; I have long valued the work of institutions like @yadvashem,” she said. “Yad Vashem’s painstaking and invaluable research on the Shoah is in no small part due to its professionalism and independence.”
Also weighing in was Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Union’s coordinator on combating antisemitism.
“The World Holocaust Center @yadvashem is a key partner for the European Union when it comes to #Holocaust research,” she said on X. “Its expertise and #independence of its leadership are essential in times of #Holocaust #distortion and attempts to politicise #Shoah remembrance.”
Dayan has also drawn support from the Holocaust scholarship community. In an open letter reported by Haaretz, more than 120 scholars said “each attempt to seek political control over Yad Vashem is a clear threat to the memory of six million victims of the Shoah, and a challenge to the legitimacy of an institution which enjoys tremendous, and well-deserved prestige, worldwide.”
The politicization of one of the world’s leading, if not the lead, Holocaust research organizations would undercut what has become in recent years a key priority for those combating Holocaust denial: pushing back official efforts by some nations to diminish the role of their populations in carrying out the massacre of the Jews, and to claim the victimization of their people was equal to that of the Jews.
The appointment to lead Yad Vashem is made by the government of the day, but Dayan’s predecessors have lasted in the job for years, working for prime ministers from parties that opposed the one that appointed them. Netanyahu reportedly is unhappy that Dayan is tied to Gideon Saar, a political leader who once was close to Netanyahu and who in recent years turned on him as corruption allegations mounted against the Israeli prime minister.
Dayan, who was appointed in 2021 by the government Netanyahu ousted late last year, said Kisch’s accusations of incompetent leadership are meritless and has welcomed Kisch’s stated plans to more closely scrutinize the institution.
One Israeli media report said that Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, was pushing for Danan to be fired over the appearance at a Yad Vashem ceremony of a singer, Keren Peles, who has criticized the government’s efforts to sap the power of the country’s judiciary. The Netanyahus batted down the allegations on Sunday.
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The post US officials call for Yad Vashem’s ‘independence’ amid reports that Netanyahu plans to fire Holocaust memorial’s director appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.