On 20 April, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu took to the podium for his annual address at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. But this year was not like any other. Netanyahu was speaking to a nation suffering a prolonged constitutional crisis that had led to three general elections in less than a year. His message was recorded in advance, due to the restrictions imposed by the global Covid-19 pandemic. And, unlike in 2019, Netanyahu had a date had set for his trial, where he would face criminal charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
“Unlike during the Holocaust,” Netanyahu told a nation in lockdown, “we saw the danger in time”. Israel had, he said, “made important decisions such as closing the country’s borders, while harnessing the entirety of the country’s systems to the cause.”
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