Knesset speaker heads Israeli Delegation

ANT KATZ

LEFT: MK Pnina Tamano-Shata (Dep Speaker, MK Rabbi Dov Lipman, MK Hilik Bar, MK Gila Gamliel & Nitzan Horowitz – PIC: BEN SWARTZ

President Shimon Peres, expressed his disappointment that illness stopped him from travelling, said he hopes to visit South Africa and pay his respects to fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Nelson Mandela, in the future.  

Pictured at left is a meeting between a young Madiba and a young Shimon Perez

Mr. Yuli Edelstein was joined by 5 parliamentarians;  Pnina Tamano-Shata (Yesh Atid party), Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid), Hilik Bar (Labour), Gila Gamliel (Likud-Beytenu) and Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz).

Pictured at right: Foreground – Ambassador Lenk, MK Nitzan Horowitz, Yuli Edelstein (Speaker of the Knesset, Likud), Background, Avrom Krengel, SAZF chair

Edelstein, a former Prisoner of Conscience under the Soviet Regime, described the ceremony as “very moving” and paid tribute to Mandela, “The nation of Israel, which is represented by this versatile delegation, will remember him as someone who abandoned violence in his just struggle for equal rights for blacks and whites alike.

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Pictured at left: A younger Yuli Edelstein (now Speaker of the Knesset), with Nelson Mandela

President Peres, in an interview on South African TV described Mandela as “more than a friend, more than a leader, he was a teacher whose life was supposed to be a legend and became a legendary reality. To the South African people he said, “I feel with you, and feel a part of you and I look upon him [Mandela] as a man that raised unforgettable hope and unending attempts to make our world a better place to live.”

President Peres added that he hoped “to visit his tomb and pay my respects.”