President Reuven Rivlin held a working meeting Wednesday at his residence with the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Ireland, Simon Coveney, who is visiting Israel.
President Rivlin began by congratulating the Foreign Minister on the formation of the new government in Ireland and reiterated an existing invitation to the new Prime Minister to visit Israel. “We would like to welcome him,” said the President, “I think the relationship between Israel and Ireland is very important, in spite of differences of opinion which we have from time to time.” The President added, “We have differences of opinion and we can respect that, but we really are against the idea of boycott, I believe that among people who respect one another we have the ability to criticize from time to time, and also to explain the real facts according to our beliefs.”
The President noted that as Speaker of the Knesset, he had enjoyed a successful visit to Ireland, “I will always remember my visit to your wonderful country, to see and to watch the strength of democracy in your parliament.”
Foreign Minister Coveney thanked the President for his welcome, and said he would encourage his Prime Minister to visit. He said, “I have been to Israel a number of times, and I know there is an impression here that Ireland takes a different position to Israel, can I say that in essence though, we are yearning for the same thing that I think the vast majority of Israelis are, which is a peaceful future. We have experienced a lot of violence on our own island, and we are still working on a peace process,” he noted, and added, “the reason that Irish people are so interested in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship and conflict is because we have had a violent past ourselves, and we see this as one of the great conflicts and divisions in the world."