The Bulgarian community in Israel has shown that when we are united, we can succeed, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev said at a meeting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Tel Aviv with Bulgarian immigrants in Israel and Bulgarians working in the country.

President Plevneliev thanked the organisations of Bulgarian Jews in Israel for their active role in defending the truth and keeping alive the memory of the saving of the 50 000-strong Jewish community in Bulgaria during World War 2. He recalled the efforts of the Bulgarian government to help Jews from other European countries in the years of the Holocaust by issuing transit visas. Thanks to this, 15 000 Jews had managed to leave Nazi-occupied countries. Bulgaria has moral capital as no other country does. This makes it essential for the world to learn more about the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews, the representatives of organisations told the President.

President Plevneliev emphasised to the Bulgarians in Israel that over the past 20 years, Bulgaria has come a long way and the goal of government institutions is to turn the country into an attractive place to live, including for Bulgarians currently resident abroad. The President said that a new national strategy for Bulgarians abroad would be accepted, which would demonstrate a new attitude by the state towards Bulgarians abroad. “Our ambition is even bigger, through the creation of e-government to be with all Bulgarians throughout the world at all times,” the President said.

The representatives of the Bulgarian community in Israel asked the President for more cultural events by Bulgarian artists in Israel, the creation of a television programme in Bulgarian and refinement of bilateral agreements in the fields of employment and social security.