Israel Information Center organizes award ceremony for books on Shimon Peres, Moshe Sharett

Peres, the only one to serve as both prime minister and president, and Sharett, the country’s second prime minister, were chosen as the focus of the Israel Information Center's award ceremony.

To honor the memories of the nation’s deceased leaders, each year, the Israel Information Center organizes an award ceremony at the President’s Residence, where prizes are given for the best books on the achievements of former presidents and prime ministers no longer living.

A different president and prime minister are chosen each time, and books about them are submitted to a public committee to decide which are deserving of the President’s Prize and the Prime Minister’s Prize.

Shimon Peres, the nation’s only leader to serve as both prime minister and president, and Moshe Sharett, who was the country’s second prime minister, were the chosen figures for this year.

The current president and the prime minister usually present the prizes. Yet, due to current circumstances, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to attend and was represented by Gila Gamliel, the minister for Innovation, Science, and Technology.

The winner of the President’s Prize was Prof. Yossi Goldstein of Bar Ilan University, who wrote a comprehensive, in-depth biography of Peres’s political career and legacy.

The Prime Minister’s Prize was awarded to Mordechai Naor, a prolific writer and researcher of the history of Israel, for his book about Sharett, and to Yael Perlov and Maya Dvorin, who interviewed Sharett’s children to produce a biography that takes a broader look at the man and his political activities.

Herzog prefaced his remarks by saying that it is customary to speak of fighting the war on seven fronts, but there is actually an eighth front – the battle for public diplomacy, which must not be ignored.

“We have to act in a statesperson-like and diplomatic fashion in the most significant manner,” he said.

As someone who has been in the service of the state for several years, Herzog continued, he could say with certainty that Israel has never before experienced such animosity as is confronting the country today.

Politicians and diplomats of the first order

He then turned his attention to Peres and Sharett, calling them “Zionist giants,” and saying that it was fitting that they be linked in this manner, as this is the 60th anniversary year of Sharett’s death, and both Sharett and Peres had worked closely with Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion.

Both were politicians and diplomats of the first order, who pursued peace but understood that sometimes, for the security of the Jewish people, it was necessary to go to war. Each has done much to facilitate Israel’s sustainable connections with other countries, both Herzog and Gamliel noted.

The ninth anniversary of the death of Peres, in accordance with the Hebrew calendar, will be this coming Tuesday, September 16, at 5 p.m.

A memorial in his honor will be held on Mount Herzl with the participation of President Herzog, Chief Justice Isaac Amit, and Adva Abramowitz, the mother of murdered IDF spotter Noam Abramowitz, who was slain during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Nahal Oz.

Maccabit Meir, the aunt of twins Gali and Ziv Berman who were abducted from Kibbutz Kfar Aza and taken to Gaza, where last week, they marked their 28th birthday, ambassadors, other members of the diplomatic corps, as well as family, friends, colleagues of Peres, and senior staff of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation who worked with him when he was president will also be among the participants.

Rotem Sharabi, the daughter of Sharon Sharabi, who campaigned relentlessly to bring home his kidnapped brother Eli Sharabi, will sing the song Or (light), which Naomi Shemer wrote, and which was originally sung by Shoshana Damari.