Israel's president Reuven Rivlin has acknowledged past and present wrongdoings to Israel's Arabs, while calling for calm in the wake of growing unrest in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Rivlin spoke at a memorial ceremony for victims of a 1956 massacre where Israeli forces killed 47 residents of a central Israeli Arab village for breaking a wartime curfew.

He is the first Israeli president to attend the ceremony.

Rivlin's visit comes as preparations are underway for the funeral of an east Jerusalem man who on died on Wednesday when he drove his car at high speed into a crowd of Israelis, killing a baby.