First of all, I want to reiterate the appreciation I expressed last November at the Quirinale Palace, regarding the decision to award to me the Dan David Foundation Prize.
The thoughtful explanation of the aims and significance of this Prize moved me deeply. I indeed wondered why I was chosen, what was the full meaning of this choice.

I obviously felt, and still feel, that I owed this great honour not only to myself as a person long involved in public life, but to what I may be considered to represent as President of Italy, as well as a political and institutional figure deeply committed to the great enterprise of building a united and peaceful Europe.

The civilization to which we all belong has its roots in ancient history, and in its development, around the shores of the Mediterranean. Two cities, Jerusalem and Rome, played indeed a very special role, which has been long recognised by all. Jerusalem, the city which in its very name speaks to us of peace as a supreme value for all times and for all nations, and which gave the whole world the great universal dreams of Jewish prophetic thought. Rome, as the cradle of civilization in the West, the original source of a long and ever renewing process of creation of humanistic values, finally embodied in those ideals of Freedom, Democracy and Fraternity which have been recognised as supreme by all nations.

Our generation, as a generation of survivors to the wars and horrors of the Twentieth Century, which have involved so heavily the Jewish people, is now engaged in trying to offer to all human beings a credible hope for a future of peace.
The building of institutions capable of preventing, in this nuclear age, further destructive wars between nations, is the great enterprise to which we are all committed. We may hope to lay, for our children and the children of our children, the foundations of a world of peaceful cooperation between all nations.
I can assure to you that Italy is and will be deeply engaged in actions and initiatives aiming at the achievement, against all threats, of such great ideals. We know that embodying them in institutional realities will demand great efforts and sacrifices by all.
As you know, I shall unfortunately be unable, due to a series of international commitments, to join you this year. I will inform you very soon of the destination chosen for the amount of the prize, in favour of a well-known institution. I am deeply grateful to you for your offer to plan for my presence at the ceremony which will take place in Tel Aviv in May 2011, when we shall finally meet. I shall be there.