16 July 2007
The 83-year-old Shimon Peres has been sworn in before the Knesset as Israel's ninth president. Peres was elected by parliament a month ago to Israel’s highest office. He replaces the disgraced Moshe Katsav who had to resign after admitting that he sexually abused several women. Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the late Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for Israel's first peace agreement with the Palestinians that led to the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and the West Bank. Born in Poland in 1923, Shimon Peres rose through the ranks of the Labor party as an ally of the Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and later held a number of senior cabinet posts, including Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. In 2006 he joined the Kadima party founded by his friend Ariel Sharon, following Peres’ failure to be reelected to the Labor Party leadership.
In his inaugural speech to the Knesset, the new Israeli president said: “It was difficult to envision that from 650,000 inhabitants we would grow to a state of 7.2 million citizens, 1.2 million of them non-Jews: Arabs, Druze, Bedouin, Circassians, a fascinating web of human society. I knew then, as I know today, that if they do not enjoy complete equality, we will not be at peace with ourselves or with our fellowman.” In his address, Peres mentioned four priorities: the revival of Jerusalem as a center of learning, the development of the Negev desert to create more space to settle, the creation of a thriving industry in the Galilee area, based on the principle of “true equality” between Arabs and Jews, and the setting up of a “Valley of Peace" with Israel’s neighbors to foster cooperation between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians. Peres also said: “I intend to devote myself to promoting the relations between Israel and the Diaspora by adding an intellectual and creative dimension. And this alongside the encouragement of modern relations with Arab countries.”
