Handshakes That Symbolically Changed the World

From Anwar el-Sadat and Menachem Begin to Mitterrand and Kohl, history remembers important symbolic handshakes, such as the one on Friday between South Korean and North Korean leaders Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.

El-Sadat and Begin

Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat became the first Arab head of state to visit Israel since the establishment of the state in 1948 and numerous wars with Arabs on November 19, 1977.

He arrives at Lod Airport, near Tel Aviv, for a 43-hour visit. Waiting for him in front of the plane are his Israeli counterpart Ephraim Katzir and Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The three shake hands, barely visible behind a crowd of photographers and bodyguards. This historic journey to Jerusalem will pave the way for agreements at Camp David that will culminate in March 1979 with the signing of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, the first concluded between Israel and some of its neighbors. Anwar el-Sadat was fiercely criticized in the Arab world for his visit to Israel and was assassinated by Egyptian Islamists in 1981.

Mitterrand and Kohl

Francois Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, hand in hand in Douaumont (northeast France), celebrated Franco-German friendship on the ground where their two nations once fought.

It was in September 1984, 70 years after the start of World War I. Mitterrand and Kohl participated in a grand ceremony in honor of the victims. After paying tribute to the fallen whose remains lie in the ossuary, the two statesmen stood in front of a coffin covered with the German and French flags.

At the end of the German anthem, Kohl and Mitterrand took each other’s hands in a symbolic gesture above the grave.

Arafat and Rabin

In Washington on September 13, 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, two sworn enemies, sealed their difficult alliance under the watchful eye of American President Bill Clinton.

On that day, the Declaration of Principles on Palestinian autonomy for a duration of five years, previously agreed upon in Oslo, was signed on the White House lawn.

Bill Clinton turned to Rabin and shook his hand, then Arafat’s. The Palestinian leader, visibly hesitant, extended his hand to the Israeli Prime Minister. Rabin also seemed to hesitate briefly but accepted the offered hand, provoking applause and cheers from those present. Today, the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still at a standstill.

Queen Elizabeth and McGuinness

In a symbolically charged moment for the peace process in Northern Ireland, British Queen Elizabeth II met with Martin McGuinness, a former commander in the paramilitary Irish Republican Army.

The IRA sought to end British rule in the province and unite it with the Republic of Ireland. McGuinness later became one of the individuals who helped negotiate an end to the violence.

McGuinness, then Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, shook hands with the Queen during her visit to the province in 2012. It was a gesture of reconciliation that would have once been unimaginable given McGuinness’s militant past.

Obama and Raul Castro

American President Barack Obama unexpectedly extended his hand to Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in 2013 in South Africa at the state funeral of Nelson Mandela.

At the stadium in Soweto, Obama approached the podium to deliver a speech, shaking hands with dignitaries present, including Raul Castro. Footage from South African television shows them exchanging a few words.

Although the two countries severed diplomatic relations in 1961 and had known only hostilities since then, this unplanned gesture would lead to an unexpected rapprochement between former enemies and the official restoration of diplomatic relations.

Putin and Trump

American President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two most powerful men in the world, officially shook hands for the first time in 2017 in Hamburg at the G20 summit. At that time, they discussed the unrest in Syria and Ukraine in a calm tone and anticipated successful cooperation between the two countries. In recent months, relations between Russia and America have deteriorated precisely due to the conflict in Syria.