Kiryat Gat (Israel): A ‘Gandhi Circle’ was inaugurated Monday at a more prominent junction in Israel’s southern town of Kiryat Gat to mark the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Gandhi roundabout, the first in Israel, was earlier inaugurated in Kiryat Gat in January 2016 to mark 60 years of the establishment of the township. It is a small township in the south of Israel with about 3,000 Indians from the Bene Israel community making it their abode. They are primarily immigrants from the Mumbai region.
At a ceremony organised at the town’s community hall, Mayor Aviram Dahari called it a ‘historic day’ when people in Israel were showing ‘respect for a great soul’.
“It’s a historic day. During the last sixty years, Kiryat Gat absorbed Jewish immigrants from all over the world, while carefully preserving their uniqueness and cultural heritage. The monument of Gandhi here is a sign of respect that we feel here for the Indian community in Kiryat Gat and in the world,” Avairam Dahari told the gathering.
India’s Ambassador to Israel, Pavan Kapoor, described it as another ‘landmark event in the relations’ between India and Israel.
“It is very special that in the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi the circle is being moved to a more prominent junction. This is something unique in Israel and it is something unique which we hope will be seen in many different forms as part of the India-Israel partnership as we go along,” Kapoor noted congratulating the Indian community members assembled from different parts of the country.
“You talked about the values of Mahatma Gandhi – about truth, about non-violence, peace, compassion, upliftment of everyone, dignity to everyone. In India we have caste and people have been treated differently. Mahatma Gandhi talked about bringing them all to the same level. In the same way with the Jewish people coming from all over it becomes important that everyone is treated equally and is empowered,” the Indian envoy stressed.
“These are values that he talked about which are universal and I am sure that with the kind of monument that you have in Kiryat Gat today, Gandhi ji’s eternal messages will carry on for times to come,” emphasized Pavan Kapoor.
A special booklet depicting the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi was also circulated in the town.
It should be stated here that Israel has a street named after the legendary Rabindranath Tagore in Tel Aviv but nothing of the sort so far existed in the name of Gandhi before 2016. The Jewish state’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s hut in the Negev town of Sde Boker though has a photo of Mahatma Gandhi hanging on its wall.
PTI