Biden condemns antisemitism, stresses support for Israel at Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden gave an impassioned speech on the horrors of forgetting the past atrocities committed against the Jewish people and his commitment to the security of Israel at a Holocaust memorial ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

Early on in his speech, Biden connected Holocaust remembrance to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, the deadliest one-day massacre of Jews since World War II.

"Now, here we are, not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later, people are already forgetting. They're already forgetting, and Hamas unleashed this terror," Biden said. "It was Hamas that attacked the Israelis. It was Hamas who took and continues the whole hostages. I have not forgotten, nor have you and we will not forget."

Biden went on to speak about a "ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world" and pointed to "vicious propaganda on social media."

The Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group, recorded 732 campus-based antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7 and the end of 2023. It was 1,062% higher than the same two-month period in 2022, when ADL recorded only 63 incidents.

Biden talked about Jewish students going to college in fear and hiding outward signs of being Jewish such as tucking away Jewish stars of David into their shirts.

"Jewish students blocked, harassed, attacked by walking to class antisemitism, antisemitic posters, slogans, calling for annihilation of Israel, the world's only Jewish state," he said. "Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing and ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust."

Biden delivered the keynote address at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony, which occurs the day after Israel's Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day to commemorate the six million Jews murdered by Nazis during World War II.

Hamas, which the U.S. has labeled a terrorist group, killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 more as hostages on Oct. 7. In the seven months since, Israel's retaliatory attacks have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

Biden's full-throated support for the Jewish people and his commitment to Israel comes seven months from an Election Day where he is trying to unite young, Black, Muslim and progressive voters that sent him to the White House, but many of whom disagree with his stance in the Israel-Hamas war.

Pro-Palestinian college protests have sprung up across the country and students are protesting Israel's offensive in Gaza, which has killed women and children in disproportionate numbers.

Biden's remarks walked the delicate line the Biden administration is attempting to navigate; between its staunch support for Israel and facing the reality young Americans are more likely to sympathize with Palestinians.  A third of adults under 30 say their sympathies lie either entirely or mostly with the Palestinian people, while 14% say their sympathies lie entirely or mostly with the Israeli people, according to a new Pew report.

Biden has pushed Israel for a cease-fire and cautioned against a major Rafah offensive, without luck. Nonetheless, he declared his commitment to the safety of the Jewish people, the security of Israel, and it's right to exist as an independent Jewish state, he said was "ironclad even when we disagree."

"We have to remember our basic principles of the nation. We have an obligation. We have an obligation to learn the lessons of history. So don't surrender our future to the horrors of the past. We must give hate, no safe harbor against anyone, anyone."

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @SwapnaVenugopal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden speech condemns antisemitism in Holocaust Remembrance ceremony