The President of Greece, Dr. Karolos Papoulias, will visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, on Tuesday, as part of a state visit to Israel.
He will tour the Holocaust History Museum, the Hall of Names, the Holocaust History, the Children’s Memorial and attend a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance.
Greeting Papoulias in Jerusalem, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that the visit signals the beginning of a new chapter in relations between the two countries.
Peres thanked Papoulias for the significant role played by Greece in blocking the recent Gaza-bound flotilla.
Noting that many of the people who had tried to run the Israeli blockade had carried banners with the imprint "Free Gaza," Peres declared that Gaza does not want peace, and that if Gaza would be free of terrorism, Gaza would be free.
Peres praised Greece for helping to calm the atmosphere in the region, and noted the Papoulias’s personal involvement in this endeavor.
"None of us will forget that your planes were the first to fly in and help us fight the fires in the Carmel Forest in December," he said.