World remembers Holocaust amid signs of rising hatred

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that anti-Semitism is on the rise in her country as political leaders, Holocaust survivors and others mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In a weekly podcast Saturday, she called it "incomprehensible and a disgrace that no Jewish institution can exist without police security —whether it is a school, a kindergarten or a synagogue."

In Warsaw, Poland, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.

Commemorations will also be held later Saturday to mark the 73rd anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Celebrities Criticize Trump Cuts to Palestinian Refugees

Actors Hugh Grant and Viggo Mortensen are among more than 25 celebrities and public figures expressing "horror" over President Donald Trump's decision to cut funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, an advocacy group said Thursday.

"The real target of this lethal attack is the Palestinian people themselves," the group said in a joint statement. "It has been launched with the clear aim of dismantling their rights, by dismantling the institution that is charged with protecting them."

Actresses Gillian Anderson, Olivia Wilde, Emma Thompson and Tilda Swinton were also among the signatories.

The letter was released by the Hoping Foundation, a London-based group that assists Palestinian children.

Expressing frustration with a freeze in Mideast peace efforts, Trump this month blamed the Palestinians for the deadlock and threatened to cut U.S. funding. Washington subsequently suspended a $65 million payment to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that provides education, health care and other social services to over 5 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants scattered across the Middle East.

On Thursday, Trump said in Davos, Switzerland, that the Palestinians must return to peace talks to receive U.S. aid money.

The United States is the largest single donor to UNRWA, and the agency has launched a global fund-raising appeal in hopes of closing the gap. In all, it provides hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the Palestinians.

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"We stand for dignity for the most vulnerable, and we stand with Palestinian refugees who are facing a terrible moment," the statement said. The celebrities called on the U.N. chief to convene a conference to establish a stable funding system for the agency.

Meanwhile, the leaders of 21 international humanitarian groups urged the U.S. to reconsider its decision to withhold the funding to UNRWA, warning of "dire consequences" if funding is cut.

The groups said they are alarmed by the Trump administration's link between aid and political objectives.

This marks a "dangerous and striking departure from U.S. policy on humanitarian assistance," the groups wrote in an open letter to Washington's U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, published Thursday.

Haley has linked aid to the Palestinians to their willingness to resume negotiations with Israel.

Lorde's Israel concert: ambassador to New Zealand asks to meet singer

Itzhak Gerberg says cancelled performance could have ‘contributed to the spirit of hope and peace in the Middle East’

Israel’s ambassador to New Zealand has invited Lorde to meet him after the singer cancelled her concert in Tel Aviv.

On Christmas Day, Lorde cancelled a concert scheduled for Israel in June after criticism from activists in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Her decision also came after an open letter written by two New Zealand fans on website the Spinoff argued the concert would show support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

Israeli ambassador to New Zealand Itzhak Gerberg on Tuesday night extended an invitation to the 21-year-old musician on social media.

In a follow-up statement on Wednesday, he said the musician had “succumbed to the supporters of a small fanatic group” that “spreads hatred and animosity” and that she had disappointed her fans in Israel.

“Your concert in Israel could have spread the message that solutions come from constructive engagement that leads to compromise and cooperation,” Dr Gerberg said.

“Music should unite not divide and your performance in Israel could have contributed to the spirit of hope and peace in the Middle East.”

The Jewish Council of New Zealand earlier said that, in succumbing to pressure to call off the concert, Lorde had made a political statement.

Spokeswoman Juliet Moses said the singer would perform in Russia on her Melodrama tour and that despite that country’s human rights abuses no one called on her to cancel that show.

The Zionist Federation of New Zealand also said it was disappointed Lorde had caved into pressure from “those who wish to see the destruction of Israel”.

“By singling out Israel amongst other nations whose human rights abuses make any that Israel supposedly commit seem a drop in the ocean, shows the double standards and discrimination towards the Jewish state of those in the BDS movement,” the organisation said in a statement.