Speech laying wreath at Ben-Gurion’s tomb

Prime Minister

Shimon PeresPrime Minister, Ladies and Gentlemen:

May I say what a great pleasure and honour it is for me to come and lay a wreath on the tomb of Ben Gurion, whom I have long admired.

He represented all that was best in leadership. He took the best standards for living, the best things in which he believed, the best traditions and the best heritage, and he brought them to life in this remarkable country of Israel, and I think in a way, each and every one of us has really to do two things in life: we honour our heritage—it has made us what we are—we honour all that is best in it, and we set out to conserve all that is best in it.

So Ben Gurion did, conserving the principles and religion in which he believed and I note that he chose to be here, where there is conserved some of the most beautiful original scenery of the desert. So he conserved the best, the principles, the moral code, the things which, if we were to tamper with, would be lost to the future for ever.

But because we have been so rich in heritage, we have also a duty to add to it for the generations of the future and that is where Ben Gurion's great vision came in. All great men [end p1] see things which the rest of us do not quite see, indeed they are hidden from us. Winston Churchill, also a great admirer of Israel and Ben Gurion, was also just such a person.

And so the university here is adding to the potential of this land, not only transmitting the heritage, but unlocking the secrets of the future so that the heritage may be the greater for future generations and they may bring to reality the land of vision which you heard in the reading from Ben Gurion.

May I bring you the warmest greetings from the United Kingdom, say how much we admire your work, how much we too gain from the Old Testament and how much we owe to the principles and law which it set for all time.

I wish you well and thank you for letting me come to this brief but moving ceremony. (applause)