A Special surprise awaited President Peres during a flight over Emek Harod
Members of Kibbutz Tel Yosef created the largest field drawing ever in Israel, an image of President Peres, as a tribute to his 90th birthday
President Peres:
"I worked these fields and now I'm flying above them. This is a return to my roots, it's an exceptionally kind gift."
The President of the State of Israel, President Shimon Peres, flew today from Jerusalem to the upper Galilee today to take part in the state memorial service for Joseph Trumeldor, and was surprised during the flight when the pilot spoke to him over the radio as they flew over Emek Harod and said, "Mr. President, look to the green field on your right, it's really something special. Can you see? On the right it says '90' and on the left they drew an image of you in the field, it looks identical."
President Peres looked down and saw the image and the number 90, "I worked these fields and now I'm flying above them. This is a return to my roots. It's huge." The pilot pointed out to President Peres that the children of the Kibbutz were on the ground waving Israeli flags as the helicopter passed above them. President Peres thanked the pilot and said, "Above these fields I feel at home."
The members of Kibbutz Tel Yosef initiated the drawing as the first gift for President Peres' 90th birthday which will be celebrated in a few months. They approached the artist Peter Wiener to create the image in the fields of the kibbutz. The image is over 250 Dunams in size (1 dunam is equal to 1000m2). The artist said, "This is the largest field drawing ever created in Israel and maybe in the world. It took hours of work. For me it is a great honor to draw an image of the president in such a special and unorthodox way. This is a symbol of our appreciation for the president's work."
Two bits of video footage have been uploaded to the GPO ftp server.
The first is aerial footage of the image in the field, the second is footage of President Peres flying over the field in the helicopter.
Photo Credit for the aerial photo of the image in the field – Asaf Solomon Aerial photography
Photo Credit for President Peres in flight – Mark Neyman/GPO
