Israeli official disgraced the memory of the Holocaust by comparing war on Hamas to WWII, memorial museum says

• An Israeli envoy wore a Nazi-era yellow star at a UN Security Council meeting.
• The move was condemned by the director of Israel's Holocaust-memorial museum Yad Vashem.
• He said wearing the patch dishonors Holocaust survivors and the State of Israel.

After an Israeli envoy wore a Nazi-era yellow star to a Security Council meeting, an Israeli Holocaust memorial museum quickly condemned him.

The director of Yad Vashem, Dani Dayan, described the stunt by Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, as a disgrace to Holocaust survivors and the State of Israel.

Erdan addressed the Security Council on Monday wearing the yellow patch, saying he and his team would wear them until the UN body explicitly condemns "the atrocities of Hamas."

He was referring to the events of October 7, when Hamas launched a series of surprise terrorist attacks on Israel, killing some 1,400 people, and abducting and torturing many.

The star-shaped patch was used by the Nazis to mark out Jewish people, inscribed with "Jude," the German word for Jew.

Erdan's patch had the words "Never Again," a phrase often used in reference to the Holocaust.

The Security Council, the UN's most powerful body, has struggled to put forward a solution to the Israel-Hamas war, with its members remaining divided on how best to proceed.

The UN General Assembly — a wider body — recently adopted a non-binding resolution that called for an "immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities."

Gaza's Health Ministry said Israel's retaliatory strikes on October 7 have killed more than 8,500 people as of October 31, many of them women and children.

The UN resolution did not explicitly mention Hamas — a proposed amendment by Canada seeking to do so did not pass.

During the Security Council meeting, Erdan repeatedly lamented the Council's inability to condemn Hamas, while drawing parallels to the Holocaust.

He also made comparisons between the Iranian regime and the Nazis, accusing it of sowing "death and destruction wherever it operates.

"Some of you have learned nothing in the past 80 years," Erdan said "Some of you have forgotten why this body was established."

The director of Yad Vashem, Dayan, called out the patch-wearing in a post on X.

Writing in Hebrew, he said wearing he was "sorry" to see members of the Israeli delegation wearing the yellow patch.

It "dishonors both the victims of the Holocaust and the State of Israel," he said in the post.

Dayan went on: "The yellow patch symbolizes the helplessness of Jews and being at the mercy of others. But, today, we have an independent nation and a strong army."

Dayan urged people to wear a blue and white flag, the colors of Israel's flag, instead of the yellow patch.