text: The Israeli Presidential Conference 2011, ‘Facing Tomorrow’
  held in the Jerusalem International Convention Center,
  officially started in the evening of June 21, 2011.
  For the first presidential conference, US President George W Bush
  was among the world leaders in attendance.
  Streets were closed, and no one could avoid the commotion.
  This year the presidents of Israel, Dominican Republic and Macedonia
  just did not draw the same level of attention from the real streets.
  However, photographers packed into a special opening press conference
  to get photos of international Columbian singing star
  Shakira and her meeting with President Shimon Peres.
  Peres spoke first, quoting from her songs, calling her an ambassador
  of young people and praised her for raising her wonderful voice.
  In his opening remarks, President Peres called her “Sharika;”
  everyone laughed–too bad I keep repeating the mistake.
  Shakira was presented with a special necklace
  that required some help put on.
  By establishing schools in poor rural areas, Shakira began a program
  to break the cycle of poverty and violence
  through education in her native Columbia.
  As a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador,
  her message of the positive effects of early education is commendable;
  perhaps we should add, as long as that education done not include teaching hate.
  The evening plenary was held in the large auditorium,
  where the Shakira interview
  was projected on two large screens, one on each side of the stage.
  Shakira did not sing, but repeated her earlier message on education.
  Her shoes were not very practical for the Jerusalem streets,
  but her stay was brief so there was not much time for strolling around.
  American comedian Sarah Silverman was the next act.
  She came across bright and witty in her interview.
  She tried to talk of a better tomorrow by using solar power.
  Her responses to questions were quick and clever,
  without any vulgar language… and the audience loved it.
  1000 pictures over three nights and two days has taken hours to edit.
  It was impossible to get down to one post of twenty photos;
  it was easy to get too many good pictures of just Sharika,
  More photos on The Real Jerusalem Streets Facebook Page.