Next week, the legendary Israeli pioneer, statesman and peace activist Shimon Peres will once again be visiting South Africa, this time as a guest of the IUA-UCF. In addition to addressing our community on Sunday, he will be having a number of official meetings and media interviews (which the Board is helping to set up). Mr Peres, even in the darkest times, has never wavered in his commitment to working for peaceful co-existence between Israel and its neighbours. The message he brings is as important as ever, not just for the Middle East but for our own country.
As could have been predicted, local anti-Israel activists have vociferously condemned the visit and are attempting in various ways to undermine it. For them, whatever Mr Peres has to say is irrelevant – the very fact that he will be here as a representative of the hated ‘Zionist entity’ is enough for them to wish to silence him. For our part, we will strenuously oppose any attempts at censorship or intimidation and do everything we can to make the visit a memorable success.