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The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial held Israel's official ceremony for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Israeli leaders, foreign dignitaries, and Holocaust survivors attended the commemoration, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared triumphantly that "the people of Israel live." He spoke about enemies who had tried to bury the Jewish future, but that nevertheless, Israel had been reborn in the land of their forefathers.

Netanyahu warned that Israel still faces the threat of annihilation and that a nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat to the Jewish state. In reference to criticism of his earlier comparison of the Holocaust and Iran's stated intentions, the prime minister said that cowering from telling the uncomfortable truth is what really cheapens the Holocaust. Netanyahu repeated his calls for the world to take further action against Iran.

The theme of this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day was "my brother's keeper," and attendees heard stories of Jews helping each other survive the horror of oppression under the Nazis. In memory of the six million Jews that were murdered, six Holocaust survivors lit six torches during the highlight of Yad Vashem's ceremony.