Hungarian president to attend Knesset ceremony

Rivlin announced on Thursday that Ader will participate in ceremony on July 17 in honor of 100th birthday of Raoul Wallenberg.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Hungarian Parliament (photo credit: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)
Hungarian Parliament
(photo credit: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)
Hungarian President Janos Ader will visit the Knesset next month, after Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin uninvited Hungarian Parliament Speaker László Kövér due to his participation in a ceremony honoring a Nazi sympathizer.
Rivlin announced on Thursday that Ader will participate in a ceremony on July 17 in honor of the 100th birthday of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat in Hungary who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust.
“The president’s participation sends a courageous moral message to the people of Israel and world Jewry,” the Knesset speaker said.
Earlier this week, Rivlin told told his Hungarian counterpart he is not welcome in the Knesset, following Kövér’s participation in a memorial for writer Joszef Nyiro, who was a member of the Nazi-sympathizing fascist Arrow Cross party in the Hungarian parliament during World War II.
Rivlin is currently in Germany, where he met with President Joachim Gauck and thanked him for the sale of Dolphin-class submarines to Israel.
“Defense of Israel is defense of the free world.
Every democracy must be able to defend itself from threats,” Rivlin stated. “We stand together in the battle for democratic values that were trampled by the Nazis.
Today Israel and Germany share these values.”