During his visit to Israel, Prime Minister Edi Rama was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor, presented by the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog — a prestigious distinction reserved for the highest-ranking individuals, such as Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, Elie Wiesel, Henry Kissinger, and Joe Biden, who have previously received this medal.

Prime Minister Rama was presented with the Medal of Honor during a special ceremony held at the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem, where he was accompanied by his wife, Linda Rama, and the Albanian delegation.

Upon receiving the medal, Prime Minister Rama stated that he considers it a fitting tribute to the example that the Albanian people set for the world — by not handing over a single Jew to the Nazis — as well as a meaningful acknowledgment of the fact that in Albania, there is no place for any form of religious or ethnic hatred, including antisemitism.

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President of Israel, Isaac Herzog: It is such a great honor to welcome you, both of you, prime minister Edi Rama and Mrs. Linda Rama and your entire delegation to the Presidency Residence in Jerusalem and to bestow upon you, mister prime minister, the Israeli presidential medal of honor, Israel’s highest civilian order.

The Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor recognizes those like you who have illuminated the world with their extraordinary leadership, moral clarity, and democratic values and those who have demonstrated their courageous friendship with the Jewish people and the state of Israel.

Mister prime minister, my dear friend Edi the Albanian code of Besa, the sacred pledge of honor, protection, and integrity, feels very present in this hall. Besa has guided the Albanian nation and carried light on behalf of all of humanity at some of its darkest hours.

During the holocaust, the people of Albania were a symbol of honor and courage. They bravely gave refuge to Jewish women and men, who escaped other parts of Europe and in doing so, helped to protect and preserve humanity in the face of the greatest crimes between human beings.

This call for integrity and honor, deeply rooted in your people, strongly resonates in your leadership today. It echoes in your commitment to tolerance, humanism, and social justice. It echoes in your uncompromising stance against antisemitism and hatred.

I must tell you that I was personally moved during my visit to Tirana in September by your compassion and the touching gift for Idit Ohel, the mother of Alon Ohel, who is still being held in Hamas’ dungeons in violation of every human and ethical principle. We must bring him and every other hostage back home.

Mister prime minister, my dear friend Edi.

As an artist, you have the unique ability to see the world, not only as it is, but as it could be. And it is this visionary capacity that is doing so much for your nation, and so much for the bond’s our nations share in the present.

The new direct flights between Tirana and Tel Aviv are simplifying travel greatly and adding in person people to people exchange.

I want to congratulate Sundor Airlines for driving this development, and to thank you personally prime minister for welcoming personally the Israelis, who joint the inaugural flight with so much warmth and generosity, that they don’t stop writing on WhatsApp how great it was.

I want to congratulate Sheba Medical Center and the Albanian government for signing an agreement to establish a joint medical project in Albania.

I want to thank you, dear Edi, and our dear friend, professor Yitshak Kreiss, the CEO of Sheba, for moving it forward.

I want to congratulate all those who are gathered here for driving further cooperation between our nations in so many important fields. Of course, the vision of partnership and friendship goes beyond just two nations. It embodies a model of partnership between ethnicity and religions. And that is why we have such important religious leaders with us today, that can help transform the Eastern Mediterranean from a region of conflict into a corridor of cooperation and connectivity, and into a model of tolerance and peace for the Middle East and Europe, all the way down to India, further on to the far East and South East Asia and beyond.

Jewish tradition teaches us that the world stands on three equal pillars, on justice, on truth, and on peace.

Your nation, dear Edi, and your horrible dictatorship for 50 years.  It is remarkable how it turned into a vibrant democracy based on justice and truth, which you are driving forward with such great success.

I also believe that these values of justice, truth, peace and the synergy between them is the basis of your leadership, and the basis of the Albania-Israel friendship, which you have held forced.

One’s again, it is my greatest honor and pleasure to bestow upon you, the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor.

Finally, dear friends no words and no gathering can be complete these days without an urgent call for the immediate release of all our hostages while being tortured as we speak in an ongoing and despicable crime against humanity, all of them until the very last one.

I close with a hope that the friendship between our nations remain a beacon of good will during these difficult and challenging times.

Let it remind us that the voice for distance in courage is always available. And not a vibrant, secure, and peaceful future for our people’s origin and the entire world is possible. Congratulations, Edi.

Prime Minister Edi Rama:  Mister President, I have a particular difficulty to find my words and being also in front of such a surprise. I don’t have a speech here as some talking points, so I’m going to try to save you things from the art starting with the very sincere, thought that this incredible honor cannot be just for me, but I take it on behalf of Albania, on behalf of the Albanian people, and first and foremost, on behalf of all Albanians Muslims and Christians, who put themselves and their lives in the line during the darkest hour of modern history and turned my country, the only country in Europe, that ended the second world war with more Jews than it started.

Unlike the other countries Albania became a shelter for Jewish people, and unlike them in the other countries Jews didn’t fly out, but flew in to get protection and to be safe.

I cannot but recall here, one of the many episodes of that glorious page in our history, when all the religious leaders were called from the Nazis to handle the access of Albanian Gold and the Jews, and they immediately said you can take the gold, but the Jews are ours to protest, and they didn’t collaborate with the Nazis and no one did so.

And there are two Jews in the list of the deported people from all over Europe in Germany. But they’re not Jews in fact, they are two Albanians. That were the sons of Albanian family, who hit to Jews and when the Nazis went to take them, the old man asked them to wait to the door, because he would give them, and he gave them the two sons, who ended in Bergen-Belsen, and never came back and never said that they were not the Jews, they were supposed to protect.

Our second world war, history, full of these episodes, and It’s in the same time a testament that I cherish very, very deep in my heart for all the generations about protecting the other, beyond his or her religion.

And yes, Albania is a country of Muslim Majority, but this was one of the reasons why the Nazis couldn’t get to the Jews, because the Muslims were their strongest shield, and trying to build upon that history we do everything we can to be vocal on antisemitism.

We have passed all legislation against antisemitism, and we have promoted learning of the Jewish Holocaust by integrating it into our school’s curricula, because our firm believe is that it is not about the Jews this is about our humanity, and on the other hand, we are building, as we speak, two Jewish centers, one Jewish Museum in Vlora, where the Jews were basically settled and one Jewish cultural center in Tirana, were again the history of Jewish salvation is integrated, but in the same time, we want to give space to the now and the tomorrow, and we want as much as possible relations with Israel and with the Jewish people from the level of tourist that you mentioned, and I was sorry for them, because they flew in Albania on the second of April.  They were told on the first of April that the prime minister was giving them that diner and they thought it was a bad joke from the sender and from that level to the level of your wonderful scientists and your wonderful tech people, and your wonderful industries.

I want to repeat here that, as it has been, not just during the second world, but in three times in history the land where Jews found protection, Albania will always be your second home and you’ll always be welcomed in Albania, and we very much hope that in this new time will be able to build together something not as extraordinary as our grandfather’s and grandmother’s did, but in the same spirit of brotherhood and of corporation.

We stand firmly, as you said, Mister president, with Israel in this very particular, difficult, painful moment when still there are innocent people in the medieval dungeons of Hamas.

As I stated before, I want to repeat it now, that Albania has always been supportive for the two-state solution. But in my view and in our view, there is no solution with Hamas around. And unlike others have tried to say, Hamas is not a resistance movement. Hamas is the Nazi of the new century, and history has taught us that with the Nazis here, there is no peace, there is no compromise.

Wishing all the best to you, to the people of Israel, to all this region, and looking forward to see peace between Jews and Arabs.

I really remain grateful forever for this moment in my life that I’m sure I don’t deserve as a person, but I’m also sure that all the Albanians that have done something for the Jews, to deserve this moment to come.

Thank you.