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Israeli President Shimon Peres received the award of honorary citizen of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius at the City Hall on Thursday afternoon. At a meeting with the Lithuanian Jewish Community, Peres received the award from Vilnius Mayor Arturas Zuokas. In addition to a few hundred of representatives of the Jewish community, the participants included Lithuania's former president Valdas Adamkus, prominent cultural figures, members of the City Council and company executives.

"Why didn't you tell me that Lithuania is such a beautiful place?," Peres thanked the Jewish community, thanking it for hospitality.

Following a brief Hewbew-language address to the participants, Zuokas continued in Lithuanian, recalling his earlier meeting with Peres and the Israeli leader's idea that historical changes made it difficult for him to say what country he was born in.

"I would like to tell you very clearly and strongly – you were born in then Lithuania," said the Vilnius mayor.

Peres was born on Aug. 2 1923 in a small town merely 100 kilometers from Vilnius. The town is currently part of Belarus.

Zuokas said the honorary citizenship of Peres also celebrates the Jewish community, which established Vilnius. The mayor also thanked for the present – a stone from Jerusalem.

"The stone will be used in the monument to the Righteous Among Nations in Vilnius, which will symbolically be open in a neighborhood called Jerusalem," said Zuokas.

A handful of protesters holding a Palestinian flag stood outside the City Hall, so the Israeli leader left the building through the back door.

Source: BNS