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Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your warm welcome. I started the visit to your beautiful country with two very emotional moments: first in Yad Vashem and then in the Grove of Nations; and Yad Vashem is there to remind us of the Holocaust and to remind us of how important it is even today as the Holocaust was not more than the culmination of millennia of expression of anti-Semitism around the world through discriminations and persecution that I witness also in my own country in the middle ages and then with the expulsion of Jews in the 16th century.

Yad Vashem is there to remind us that we need to be in the first line of fighting against anti-Semitism and also fighting against all other forms of bigotry, be it racism, xenophobia or even anti Muslim hatred, and to promote understanding and to promote dialogue. And I’m very appreciative, Mr. President, of what has been your commitment to dialogue and to understanding; and then in the Grove of Nations, symbol of understanding among the nations states that you mentioned, but also with the possibility to plant an olive tree that represents both life and peace. I was reminded that my mission is, everywhere, to promote dialogue, understanding and peace, and these are my messages in the beginning of this visit. I want to express to you, Mr. President, that you can be fully confident that in my role as Secretary-General and, in relation to the functions of the Secretariat that I am supposed to lead, I am very keen in stressing the values of the Charter and a very important value of the Charter impartiality, and impartiality means treating all states equally and I’m totally committed to that in my action and in everything I can do for the Organization I lead.

I do believe that in particular where you mentioned those that call for the destruction of the State of Israel that that is a form of modern anti-Semitism, but you also understand that I sometimes disagree with positions of the Government of Israel or any other government, and that is absolutely normal in society. We will always be very frank in the dialogue with the State of Israel in trying to find ways for peace to be possible in this region, but we will always be very committed to make sure that anti-Semitism doesn’t prevail and that equality in the treatment of all states is fully respected.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

This visit to Yad Vashem is a tribute to the Jewish people, victims of the most hideous crime against humanity in the history of mankind and a tribute to the courage of the survivors whose testimony we all have the obligation to repeat to make sure that the future generations will never forget the Holocaust.

I was particularly impressed by the first room. The first room gives clearly the idea that the Holocaust was not a crazy initiative of a group of paranoid Nazis but it was the combination of millennia, of persecution and discrimination of the Jewish people of what we today call anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism; my own country also lived it and I would recall the most tragic moment of them all with the expulsion of the Jews in the beginning of the 16^th century. I believe that the horror of the Holocaust should be such that anti-Semitism should now be dead forever but, unfortunately, we see it alive and well.

I was shocked a few [days] ago to listen to the chant of a group of neo Nazis in developed country in the world chanting “blood and soil”- slogan of the Nazis. That is a dramatic demonstration that it is our duty to do everything possible and as Secretary General of the United Nations I fully assume that commitment to do everything possible to fight anti-Semitism in all its expressions. As I said I’m truly committed to fight anti-Semitism, as to fight racism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim hatred and all other forms of bigotry that unfortunately we are not yet able to make our world free of.

Allow me also to congratulate all those that have conceived, built and work in this remarkable memorial that so strongly impresses us all.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your warm welcome and I want to say that I started my visit this morning at Yad Vashem and it was clearly not only an occasion to fully appreciate what was the most horrendous crime against humanity that has been produced in the history of mankind, but also to see how much it was linked to forms of prosecution and discrimination of the Jewish people for millennia – what we now call anti-Semitism – and, indeed, it is for me clear that to express that the right of existence of the state of Israel doesn’t exist or the wish to destroy the state of Israel is unacceptable form of modern than anti-Semitism. You can be absolutely sure that, as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, I am totally committed to be in this regard adamant: the right of existence of the State of Israel is clear and the right of existence in security of the State of Israel is clear.

As you mentioned, Mr. Prime Minister, Member States are sovereign states. Member States define their positions based on their interests, their values and their convictions. As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I believe it is my duty to be simultaneously an honest broker and the messenger for peace and to be an honest broker means to be impartial.

To be an honest broker means that all countries must be treated equally both by the Secretary-General and the Secretariat that the Secretary-General directs. This is for me very clear and you can be sure that these values will be upheld.

But I always feel that it is my duty as Secretary-General to be the messenger for peace. I had the privilege in past capacities as Prime Minister of Portugal and President of an international organization, a political organization, to witness very important moments in the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. I recall one meeting long ago during the Government of Ariel Sharon in which Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat met in my office as Prime Minister of Portugal secretly – I think now it can be revealed because time has passed – for four hours and they took me in confidence and I could witness at the same time the commitment for peace and the difficulties of that commitment. I have to say in total candor that I’ve always had a dream, a dream that one day I will be able to see in the Holy Land, a Holy Land in which Jerusalem is clearly a city linked, deeply linked, to three religions – that cannot be denied – two states able to live together in mutual recognition but, also, in peace and security.

It is my feeling that for that to be possible, and that is probably the culmination that was never put fully in place, it would be necessary, and the Secretary-General and the United Nations will always be at the disposal of the parties, but with humility to recognize that I have not the influence or the leverage to be determinant on that, but I think it is necessary to have, on the one hand, a political process and objectives with all the complexities and difficulties and the different positions in the beginning, but that would accompany a meaningful improvement of the economic and social commissions of life of the Palestinians, to create a dividend for peace to make people believe that peace is worth it. This is very much linked to the comments you made.

It is true that I have, in the past capacity in what I today express as the Secretary-General, expressed clearly my feeling that there are a number of obstacles, a variety, different kinds of obstacles not just one kind of obstacle. I’ve been expressing my opposition for instance to the settlement activity but clearly the combination of terrorism, violence and incitement and the understanding of the difficulties created by the separation between the West Bank and Gaza.

So there are here a number of complexities that require a strong wish for peace, but understanding that it will be a complex political process, and, once again, my feeling that it would be good in parallel to that political process to have a dividend for peace in which of course Israel has achieved in its economic development extraordinary results, in which the Palestinian people could also be able to live better in the economic and social dimensions.

I want to express to you my enormous admiration for the achievements of Israel in innovation, the achievements of Israel in technology and how important it is in this period of climate change and desertification, especially the cooperation that Israel can provide to different countries in the world, in which drought is condemning more and more populations to despair and forcing many people to flee. I think Israeli technology and the Israeli cooperation can give an extremely important impulse in our capacity to resist climate change and in our capacity to realize our sustainable development goals, especially in the most vulnerable areas of the world and maybe in Africa, and I have accompanied your effort in this regard and I want to say how much we can see that this is an extremely important dimension.

Finally, Mr. Prime Minister, you’ve mentioned it, I want to say that and in the letter that I recently wrote this is clearly expressed, I will do everything in my capacity to make sure that UNIFIL fully meets its mandate, and I understand the security concerns of Israel, and I repeat that the idea or the intension or the will to destroy the State of Israel is something totally unacceptable from my perspective.