Cairo: The Israeli Government has named a square in Haifa after the late Egyptian President Anwar Al Sadat in honor of the Egyptian president who signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and was the first Egyptian president to visit Jerusalem in 1977. According to Israeli newspapers, the square  was dedicated in the center of the Ramat Begin neighborhood in Haifa on Tuesday. The naming of the square in Sadat's honor has come 30 years after the signing of the peace treaty between Cairo and Tel Aviv. The city council decided to honor the late Egyptian president by naming a main square after him in the famous Ramot Begin neighborhood , in Haifa, the third largest city in Israel. Sadat, the first Arab leader to sign a peace agreement with Israel, was assassinated in 1981. Maariv quoted Yasser Reda, the Egyptian Ambassador to Israel, as saying during a ceremony conducted by the city council during the occasion that, “it is natural to name the square after Sadat, as here, in the Israeli town of Haifa, the late President layed the foundation for peace and his name was forever after associated with the path of peace, and today President Mubarak reiterates the same call.” The Egyptian Ambassador commended what the late president Sadat did for peace, saying in remarks to the Israeli newspaper that the road is not easy and full of thorns and not paved with roses, but Sadat provided inspiration for the future, he said. Regarding their decision in the naming of the square by the Haifa City Council, Yona Yahav, who participated in the ceremony, said, “Anwar Sadat was found worthy of commemoration in respect to his decisive contribution to moving the peace process forward in partnership with Menachem Begin. The leadership of these two men brought about a dramatic change in the history of the State of Israel. Sadat acted with determination and courageous leadership, and he paid for it with his life.” The ceremony was attended by Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, Egypt's Ambassador to Israel, Yasser Rida, and Herzl Makov, the Director General of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. It was the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin who invited Sadat to address the Knesset in Jerusalem and who eventually signed a treaty with him in Washington D.C. When the decision was first made public in 2008, Mayor Yahav said, “This decision is a form of appreciation for the peaceful initiative of Sadat, who visited Haifa in 1979.” The timing of the naming ceremony is significant, as well, as Sadat was born on December 25, 1918. In contrast to Sadat, the current President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, has not visited Israel at all, with the exception of the funeral of the late Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. Mubarak took the reins in 1981, in the wake of Sadat's assassination. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
