During a United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday night, Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan wore a replica of a Nazi-era yellow star on his jacket with the words "never again" inscribed on it.
Read more:
"If this council had convened in June of 1944, it would deal with the amount of fuel the Nazis have and the high number of casualties the Germans had sustained against Britain," he said. "You would call for a cease-fire before the Russians took back Stalingrad.
Ambassador Gilad Erdan
(Video: UN Security Council)
"When Jewish babies were burned in Auschwitz the world remained silent, today Jewish babies are burned in Be'eri and all over the south by Hamas Nazis and the world remains silent yet again.
"Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years. Some of you have forgotten why this body was established... Just like my grandparents, and the grandparents of millions of Jews, from now on my team and I will wear yellow stars... We will wear this star until you wake up and condemn the atrocities of Hamas."
The yellow star was a badge that Jews were mandated to wear in Nazi-occupied territories during World War II. It was used as a tool of identification, discrimination and persecution, marking Jews for segregation and eventual deportation to concentration camps.
In his speech, the ambassador equated Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to Adolf Hitler. "Iran's ayatollah regime are today's Nazis, Khamenei is the führer, and their army includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Revolutionary Guards and other terror organizations... If Hitler had a Twitter account, it would look the same as Khamenei's."
Further condemning UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who was heavily criticized for saying the Hamas massacre "did not happen in a vacuum", Erdan said, "Khamenei said Israel is dying and called for its destruction, and the representatives of this murderer, the UN secretary-general meets with no shame. It's a disgrace!"
Danny Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, did not take kindly to Erdan's stunt. "This act disgraces both the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel. The yellow star stands for the helplessness of the Jewish people, subject to the graces of others. Today we have an independent state and a strong military. We're our own masters. Thus, we will wear a Blue and White flag, not a yellow star."