Rivlin Cuts Short US Trip

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has instructed his staff to shorten his stay in New York, where he is currently visiting so that he could speak at the United Nations special session in commemoration of the Holocaust and the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Rivlin will depart from New York as early as this evening with the desire to be in Israel, with the bereaved families and the wounded, following the events in northern Israel. The President will arrive back in Israel tomorrow afternoon, two days before he was due to return.

President Rivlin said;

I am here today moments before my address to the United Nations special session to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. However, my heart and my mind are at home in Israel. I want to send my condolences to the bereaved families as well as my wishes for a full recovery to the wounded. I am certain that the IDF knows how to manage the situation, and that Israel’s leaders will work to calm the situation as much as possible. We are with you, even when we are required to do our job abroad, for our country and for our people.