08/22/2021 3:29 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 08/22/2021 3:52 PM
The Israeli Government on Sunday appointed Argentine
Dani Dayan
as president of the
Shoah Yad Vashem memorial, the Jerusalem Holocaust Museum
.
Thus he put an end to the controversy raised by the previous prime minister, who had proposed a controversial figure from the radical right.
Dayan
was Israeli consul in New York
and headed the Council of Yesha, the main organization representing Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously nominated
Effi Eitam
, a former radical right-wing military man with a history of controversial remarks about Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, as director.
Researchers, historians and survivors of the Jewish genocide
criticized this choice,
understanding that it went against the values of this museum, visited before the pandemic by hundreds of thousands of people and foreign dignitaries.
The Hall of Names in the Holocaust Museum.
The institution happens to be chaired by an Argentine.
Photo EFE
As reported by the Jewish News Agency (AJN), Dayan
left Argentina at the age of 15
, when he emigrated to Israel.
"He created a high-tech company and then sold it, abandoning the business world for politics with the then unique mission of
saving the settlement movement and preserving the Land of Israel,
" the AJN noted.
In 2007 he was elected to head the Yesha Council.
Secular and fluent in Spanish, Hebrew and English, Dayan managed to build bridges between the Council and mainstream Israel, as well as with the international community.
Dani Dayan lived in Argentina until he was 15 years old, when he decided to emigrate to Israel.
AFP photo
As a result, the AJN noted, a special envoy position was created for him on the council, even after he stepped down from his leadership role in 2013.
Benjamin Netanyahu appointed him consul general of Israel in New York in 2016.
With information from AFP and AJN
DD
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