Last update - 00:00 15/12/2006
Former MK Sharansky awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent
Former Likud minister Natan Sharansky was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Friday.
Addressing the participants, United States President George W. Bush called Sharansky a symbol of "the moral emptiness of imperial communism" and a "champion for liberty and democracy."
"As a Jew applying to immigrate to Israel, he was refused and harassed by the Soviet regime," said Bush. "Natan Sharansky became a leading dissident and advocate for human rights, and after a show trial he was sentenced to a gulag for 10 years."
"Today the Soviet Union is history, but the world still knows the name Sharansky," said the president. "He remains, above all, an eloquent champion for liberty and democracy."
"Natan reminds us that every soul carries the desire to live in freedom, and that freedom has a unique power to lift up nations, transform regions, and secure a future for peace," Bush continued. "Natan Sharansky is a witness to that power, and his testimony brings hope to those who still live under oppression."
Alongside Sharansky, legendary blues musician B.B. King and historian David McCullough recieved similar honors.