President Barack Obama. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s itinerary for his March trip to Israel has been released. When he lands at Ben Gurion International  Airport on March 20th he will be received by both President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and given a State reception.

Obama will then head to the presidential residence in Jerusalem where he will again be given a reception. From there Obama will head to Yad Vashem accompanied by Peres and Netanyahu, where he’ll lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance. The next stop will be Mount Hertzl, Israel’s national cemetery, where Obama will lay a wreath on Theodore Herzl’s tomb as a gesture to Zionism. Then he will continue to Yitzhak Rabin’s tomb, laying a wreath there as well.

In the afternoon he is expected at the prime minister’s house, where Netanyahu and Obama will meet with small delegations to discuss issues such as Iran, Syria and the peace process.

Following the meeting a joint press conference will be held, proceeded by dinner.

The next day Obama will head to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and return to Jerusalem by noon, when he will be taken by Netanyahu to examine a model of Second Temple Period Jerusalem.

The two heads of state will then visit the Shrine of the Book, where Netanyahu will show Obama the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Following that Obama will visit the Israel Museum, where he will be shown the latest developments in Israeli high-tech, bio-tech, nanotechnology and agriculture.

That afternoon the president will make a speech and have dinner with President Peres.

On his last day in Israel Obama is expected to visit an Iron Dome battery with Prime Minister Netanyahu and then he will depart for Jordan where he is to meet King Abdullah.