(Communicated by MFA Spokesman's Bureau)
The international Holocaust Era Assets Conference will open on Friday, 26 June 2009, in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic.
The conference will be held under the auspices of the Czech president and the presidents of the Czech senate and parliament, and will mark the end of the Czech Republic's presidency of the European Union.
Over 500 representatives from some 50 official delegations and more than two dozen non-governmental organizations will participate in the conference. The final session of the conference (Tuesday, 30 June 2009), will be held at the site of the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp, where the conference's final declaration will be presented.
Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Public Affairs and the Diaspora, will lead the Israeli delegation. Deputy delegation leader is former MFA Director General Reuven Merhav. The Israeli delegation will include a distinguished group of Holocaust survivors, who will provide substantial moral and ethical weight, as well as representatives of the MFA and the Ministry of Pensioners' Affairs.
The task of the Israeli delegation at the conference is to deliver a message concerning the immediate necessity to solve the problem of restitution of Jewish property, and this for two main reasons: To obtain adequate compensation for the survivors, and to strengthen awareness of the memory of the Holocaust.
Prior to the conference, delegation leader Yuli Edelstein said: "We have reached the final hour. A baby born towards the end of World War II is today a senior citizen."