President of Israel gives lecture at Oxford
19 Nov 08
Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, held out his hope for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East for the benefit of all people, during a lecture at the Sheldonian Theatre on 18 November. He called for optimism and welcomed the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.
The ‘very promising’ election of Obama marked ‘an end of racism’. Remarking that Zionism had started over 100 years ago as a response to anti-Semitism, he argued that democracy wasn’t just about ‘each of us having equal rights’, it was about ‘having equal rights to be different in a world of differences’.
Shimon Peres, the ninth President of Israel, twice Israeli Prime Minister and winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, gave his lecture on ‘The Globalisation of Peace’ at the invitation of Balliol College, Oxford. The Sheldonian Theatre was full with a 1000-strong audience made up of members of the University.
The Master of Balliol, Andrew Graham, announced that the President’s lecture would be the first in a series of five. ‘These lectures will draw to Oxford – at the invitation of Balliol College and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue – distinguished speakers from around the world,’ he said.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue was founded by Lord Weidenfeld. It funds the Weidenfeld Scholarships at Oxford University and promotes dialogue across all countries and all cultures through a diverse set of programmes.
The lecture series will focus on the themes of peace and globalisation, and the topics will range widely and not be limited to the Middle East. The series will be titled The Peace lectures: inaugurated by Shimon Peres.
In his lecture, Peres acknowledged the difficulties of a peace process, including difficulties internally. ‘Most people are for peace, but many don’t like the process of it,’ he said. ‘Peace is a little bit like love: you have to close your eyes sometimes.’
An open question and answer session at the end of the lecture allowed the audience to challenge the President on what Israel needs to do to end conflict in the Middle East.
