"Every time I have symbolically knelt in this place of pain and remembrance, I have renewed the feeling of closeness to the Jewish people and the resolution to help ensure that there will never again be such bestial hatred
"
.
This is what Senate President Ignazio La Russa wrote in the Book of Remembrance at the end of his visit to Yad Vashem, the memorial mausoleum in Jerusalem.
"It's the gestures that count - he then said - when you come to this place of memory, of remembrance but also a place of warning".
The visit follows the
meeting that the president of the Senate had this morning in the Knesset with his counterpart
Amir Ohana.
"We are firmly against any terrorist force that threatens Israel's freedom, existence and independence.
Israel's rights must be protected
," he said on that occasion.
"As president of the Senate I must say that in all its governments Italy has always defended the existence of Israel, it has always wanted Israel to exist and demonstrate its freedom and independence".
La Russa: 'We are against any terrorist force that threatens Israel's freedom'
La Russa underlined that the meeting has an "important and particular significance because at the same time the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel and those of the birth of the Italian republican parliament fall".
La Russa then said - in the press releases that followed the meeting with Ohana - that she had invited the president of the Knesset to Italy in May for the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the first session of the Senate of the Italian Republic.
