Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority in the last decade has added about 1.4 million names to its central database of Shoah victims’ names, bringing the total number of names registered to about 4 million, according to a statement released Tuesday.
“One of Yad Vashem’s central missions since its foundation, the recovery of each and every victim’s name and personal story, has resulted in relentless efforts to restore the names and identities of as many of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices as possible,” said Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. “We will continue our efforts to recover the unknown names, and by harnessing technology in the service of memory, we are able to share their names with the world.”
In 2004, Yad Vashem launched the central database of Shoah victims’ names onto its website with 3 million names. Names are recovered via Pages of Testimony, special forms filled out in memory of the victims by those who remember them, and by combing archival lists and documentation for names.
Of the 4 million names now known, some 2.2 million come from Pages of Testimony and the remainder from various archival sources and postwar commemoration projects.
Israel Protests Gaza Rockets to U.N.
Israel has filed a complaint in the United Nations over rocket attacks from Gaza.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council President Susan Rice, Meron Reuben, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called on the body to “send a clear and resolute message that these attacks are unacceptable.”
The letter, dated Tuesday, was sent several hours after a rocket fired from Gaza landed several yards from a kindergarten in session in a western Negev kibbutz, wounding a 14-year-old girl on her way to school. Israel responded to the attack later in the day with an airstrike on what it called a Hamas terror center in Gaza.
At least 13 rockets from Gaza have been fired on southern Israel since Sunday.
“The incidents of the past several days are part of an escalation of terrorist attacks emanating from Gaza that target Israeli civilians, towns, and military personnel,” the letter said.
Later it said, “In response to such attacks, Israel has exercised and will continue to exercise its right to self-defense.”
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Wednesday told Israel Radio that the Palestinian Authority fears a full-blown Israeli attack on Gaza, saying that “Military solutions such as these won’t accomplish a thing and would only complicate the situation.”
Israeli Panel Approves Heritage Site Renovations
An Israeli government committee approved the $25 million renovation of 16 national heritage projects and sites.
The Ministerial Committee on the National Heritage, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday approved the renovation of the sites—among the 150 sites and initiatives included in the “Plan for Renovating and Strengthening National Heritage Sites and Assets” approved in February—at a cost of $25 million. The plan caused some controversy when two West Bank biblical sites, Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, were added to the list.
Included on the list of the approved renovations is Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.
The committee meeting Tuesday was held at the Ben Tzvi Institute in Jerusalem, home to the wooden cabin used by the second president of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Ben-Tzvi, another site on the list.
“The heritage project is one that we owe ourselves, our children and future generations,” Netanyahu said." (source)
