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Israel's UN ambassador wore a yellow star on his chest on Monday as he addressed the Security Council, provocatively pledging to don the badge of Nazi oppression of Jews until members of the UN body condemn Hamas's "atrocities".
Gilad Erdan denounced the UN Security Council for "staying silent" over the unprecedented deadly attacks by Hamas against Israel on 7 October, which killed 1,400 Israelis.
The UN's 15-member council has not been able to adopt a single resolution on the almost four-week-long war in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces have killed over 8,700 Palestinians so far, including over 3,500 children.
Erdan's decision to wear the badge was swiftly criticised by the chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, who said the act "disgraces victims of the Holocaust". Many other Jewish people took to social media to denounce Erdan's move.
Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear the star to distinguish them from the rest of the population, leading to their eventual imprisonment in ghettos and then death camps.
