In the afternoon of Thursday 22 July 2010 the Mayor welcomed to Ljubljana City Hall the President of Israel Shimon Peres.

Shimon Peres came to Slovenia on the invitation of State President Danilo Türk. In addition to the President, VIP guests included Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor, Speaker of the Slovenian Parliament Dr Pavel Gantar and Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Janković.

Shimon Peres was born on 2 August 1923. As a veteran of Israeli politics, in which he has been involved for 66 years, he has held the position of President since July 2007. He was first elected to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in 1959, and has twice been Israeli Prime Minister.

Together with then Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for the achievement of the Oslo Peace Accord. He is a proponent of peace with the Palestinians and in favour of a two-state solution to the Middle East issue.