| (verbatim transcript) “Dear Ms Ambassador, Ladies and Gentlemen, After almost two millineries the dispersion and last but not least after the tragedy of destiny, the Holocaust that had taken place in the first half of the 20th century, and after which the vision of Theodor Herzl, born in Budapest, came true: Israel – the homeland of the Jews of the world – was proclaimed by Ben Gurion on 14th May 1948. He acclaimed the other day, on 15th May: ‘Yesterday some very special event happened in Israel, the historical significance of which might only be appraised by the future generations’. Israel born – in the wake of millions’ sacrifice – could only enjoy the jubilation of its independent statehood for a couple of hours, because series of wars and conflicts – embittering the life of the Israeli population and that of the neighboring peoples – did begin and has last until now. Nevertheless Israel grew up and became a nation prospering in the field of intellectual and material goods, and a state, following a democratic value system. As an outcome of the work of the founding fathers and that of the succeeding generations, Israel became a developed country, one of the top-ranking vanguards in the field of science and technology. In Hungary we have got many reasons to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. After having lived in centuries-long historical coexistence with the Jewry, during the 19th century the Hungarian Jewish community played an outstanding role in the Hungarian national renaissance. The Jews’ talent and work had contributed to Hungary’s becoming a dynamically developing cultural and scientific center – on European level – by the beginning of the 20th century. However celebrating the establishment of the State of Israel we should not forget to bow head to the memory of our several hundred thousand Jewish compatriots, who had fallen victim of the horrible and unforgivable Holocaust. In Hungary all of us highly appreciate those hundreds of thousands who had been working on the establishment of Israel and its prosperity, as pioneers and those, searching for a new home after the world war, and speaking and thinking Hungarian. According to various statistic data Israel has got now 200,000 Hungarian-speaking citizens, who had come from different parts of the Carpathian Basin. One of the heroes of the recent history of Israel is Hannah Szenes, born in Budapest, who had laid down her life for freedom. A book was also published about Hungarian engineers, who had built up the modern Jerusalem’s public utility service system. But the names of those chemical professors are also well known, who had been the founders of the Jerusalem Hebrew University. There are many people in Israel, but hardly any ones in Hungary, who know that most of the Kibbutzs in the beautiful Galilee had been established by Hungarian Jews, just like they had a very significant role in transforming the Negev Desert into a thriving homeland. We know and feel that both the Hungarian speaking community in Israel, having Hungarian roots, and the Hungarian Jewish community are and will remain the genuine massive pillars when we are all working on strengthening the Hungarian-Israeli relations. We think that it is very important both in Israel and in Hungary that people here and there should conceive: we had drown the lessons from history and Hungary – based upon the principle of respecting democratic and Human rights – and rejecting any manifestation of racism and any form of religious discrimination – should live together and cooperate with Israel. Two decades after the change of the regime our bilateral relations have been placed in their merited and natural position. Our formal and informal ties became habitual, intensive and steady. We can esteem the other’s cultural and scientific values and we can work on developing our economic and commercial cooperation - without any ideological constraints. We are convinced that Hungary’s EU and NATO memberships do open new dimensions to deepen our relations. Based upon this conviction we do support all those efforts, which are made to further develop the relations between Israel and the European integrating organizations more comprehensive. Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Independence Day of the State of Israel, I sincerely wish the people of Israel and also all the peoples of its neighboring countries, to come all their dreams true: to live in peace, security, in mutual appreciation and cooperation, and be successful. (Delivered at the Budapest anniversary reception – May 13th, 2008) |