On Monday, the incoming Minister of Labor and Social Security Ofir Akunis (Likud) informed Yad Vashem through Collette Avital, Chairwoman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, that he would relinquish his participation in the international Holocaust Forum this Thursday in Jerusalem, to enable the participation of an additional Holocaust survivor and his escort.
During his talk with Collette Avital, Minister Akunis noted that he had learned from his colleague Minister Zeev Elkin that very few seats had been allocated to Holocaust survivors at Thursday's central event. He felt that the right thing to do was to relinquish his seat at the ceremony in favor of a Holocaust survivor and his escort who had requested to attend the event and had been turned away.
Akunis is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland and from Saloniki on his mother's side.