President honours Holocaust victims

JERUSALEM • Wrapping up his three-day visit to Israel, Barack Obama paid respects Friday to its heroes and victims of the Holocaust, solemnly reaffirming the Jewish state’s right to exist.

Accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, the U.S. president laid wreaths at the graves of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism who died in 1904, and Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister who was assassinated in 1995.

He placed small stones on their graves in accordance with Jewish tradition.

Mr. Obama also toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, declaring it illustrates the depravity to which man can sink but also serves as a reminder of the “righteous among the nations who refused to be bystanders.”

The U.S. visitor donned a skull cap and was accompanied by Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp who lost both parents in the Holocaust.

Among his stops was the memorial’s Hall of Names, a circular chamber that contains original testimony documenting every Holocaust victim ever identified.

“Nothing could be more powerful,” he said.

Friday’s visit to Herzl’s grave and Thursday’s visit to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient Hebrew texts, were symbolic stops for Mr. Obama that acknowledged the rationale for Israel’s existence rests with its historical ties to the region and with a vision that predated the Holocaust.

“Here on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear,” he said at Yad Vashem.

“The state of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust, but with the survival of a strong Jewish state of Israel, such a holocaust will never happen again.”

Mr. Obama had lunch with Mr. Netanyahu, then travelled by car to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity.

He was met by about 300 Palestinians and international pilgrims near the Nativity Church, while 50 Palestinian demonstrators gathered on the main road with signs saying “Free Palestine.”

At a nearby mosque, Mohammed Ayesh, a Muslim religious official in Bethlehem, issued a plea to Mr. Obama in a speech to worshippers:

“America, where are your values? Where are the human rights? Isn’t it time that you interfere to make it stop?”

In the afternoon, the U.S. president flew to Jordan.

His timetable included a meeting with King Abdullah in the capital Amman and a visit to the fabled ancient city of Petra.