Should Israel be banned from Rugby

[rowan]

Not such a minor issue, it appears. More likely just the tip of the iceberg:

Israel is attempting to smear activists who question the illegal occupation of Palestinian land by helping to build racism cases against them, an investigation by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit reveals.

The investigation, "The Lobby" , also uncovers Israel's extensive, well-financed propaganda campaign in the UK to counter negative news stories about its policies and to fund trips to Israel for young activists.

As part of a six-month investigation, Robin (alias), an undercover reporter, infiltrated a lobby of politicians, activists and Israeli embassy officials working to drum up support for Israel.

Many enjoyed financial or strategic support from the Israeli embassy in London via Shai Masot, a senior policial officer at the embassy.

During the investigation, Michael Rubin, a young Labour and pro-Israel activist, told Robin that he worked "with the ambassador and embassy quite a lot".

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/u ... 56872.html

[rowan]

[rowan]

Welcome to hell

[rowan]

[rowan]

The director of the Jewish Labour Movement has been caught on camera expressing a wish for violent revenge against her enemies.

“I saw Jackie Walker on Saturday and thought, you know what, I could take her, she’s like 5’2 and tiny,” Ella Rose unwittingly told an undercover reporter working for Al Jazeera in September.

“That’s why I can take Jackie Walker. Krav Maga training,” she said, referring to the Israeli army hand-to-hand fighting technique. “Yeah. I’m not bad at it. If it came to it I would win, that’s all I really care about.”

Her comments can be seen in episode two of Al Jazeera’s film The Lobby which was broadcast on Thursday evening and can be watched above.

Walker is a long-time anti-Zionist Jewish activist in the UK’s main opposition Labour Party.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/al ... ls-critics

[rowan]

Masters of propaganda...

The BBC has admitted to producing a misleading map of Israel in which Jerusalem is included, the occupied West Bank is annexed to Jordan and Gaza no longer exists.

The map was produced as a graphic for an episode of BBC Two’s Hairy Bikers cookery series entitled “Chicken and Egg,” broadcast at the end of last year.

In the episode, the motorcycling cooks visit Israel and Jerusalem – though the status of the eastern part of the city as occupied territory is not acknowledged – to learn about local chicken and egg dishes. These are all referred to as “Israeli,” even though they include platters which are clearly Arab and North African in origin, including shawarma, shakshuka and couscous.

The map was spotted and challenged by viewer Elizabeth Morley, who then spent the next three months trying to force the BBC into an admission.

In the map, used at the beginning of the episode to illustrate where the two bikers went, the West Bank is incorporated into Jordan, while Gaza has become part of Israel.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/am ... partiality

[canta_brian]

Masters of propaganda...

The BBC has admitted to producing a misleading map of Israel in which Jerusalem is included, the occupied West Bank is annexed to Jordan and Gaza no longer exists.

The map was produced as a graphic for an episode of BBC Two’s Hairy Bikers cookery series entitled “Chicken and Egg,” broadcast at the end of last year.

In the episode, the motorcycling cooks visit Israel and Jerusalem – though the status of the eastern part of the city as occupied territory is not acknowledged – to learn about local chicken and egg dishes. These are all referred to as “Israeli,” even though they include platters which are clearly Arab and North African in origin, including shawarma, shakshuka and couscous.

The map was spotted and challenged by viewer Elizabeth Morley, who then spent the next three months trying to force the BBC into an admission.

In the map, used at the beginning of the episode to illustrate where the two bikers went, the West Bank is incorporated into Jordan, while Gaza has become part of Israel.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/am ... partiality

Has there ever been a greater evil? Especially as they were talking about eggs. Eggs have shells. They were probably British and American shells..

[Sandydragon]

I'm not entirely convinced that a mistake in an episode of the hairy bikers will warp too many people's understanding of the events in the region.

On the other hand m if they had screwed up a baklava.....

[Digby]

I caught the fag end of one of these Hairy Biker shows on chickens last night, they were in France, and I can't say I noticed any maps as I wasn't much looking at the screen as I was making some crab cakes, but they did discuss the chicken and I've no clear recollection they mentioned the chicken was an Asian thing, just horrific to convey it in fashion some may think it European. Also they never mentioned on this cooking show about chicken and egg recipes in France that the House of Lancaster once ruled over France and thusly the territory was disputed, again just horrific, even the more recent occupation and rule by Germany was overlooked and the whole was simply passed off through ignorance as a France by, of and for the French.

[rowan]

Good story from the Huffington Post:

Why I Applaud The NFL Players Who Spoke Out Against Israel

They wouldn’t have spoken to a mother whose fourteen-year-old child was arrested in the middle of the night, or the daughter who watched her father get shot by Israeli police because he looked “suspicious.” They wouldn’t have witnessed how Palestinians are prohibited from walking on the same side of the street as Israeli settlers in Hebron, or the wired nets that line the storefronts to prevent settlers from throwing trash on Palestinians as they walk past.

They wouldn’t have spoken to the children in the refugee camp who were evicted from their homes which they watched bulldozers destroy to make way for new Jewish-only settlements. They wouldn’t have spoken to the farmers who stand in the back of trucks for hours waiting to pass through checkpoints, or the women who have been forced to give birth at checkpoints while trying to receive medical assistance. They wouldn’t have spoken to the Eritrean and Sudanese refugees who have been held in Israeli detainment camps. And they wouldn’t have spoken to the Afro Palestinians who have long standing roots in the region and deep cultural and emotional ties Black Americans. In short, they wouldn’t have seen anything close to the whole truth.

Shortly before their announcements to pull out of the trip, an open letter was released asking the NFL players to consider withdrawing from the delegation. The letter included signatures from renowned musicians, artists and social justice advocates, including Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, and John Carlos, known for the iconic moment when he raised his fist in the air in a Black power salute during the 1968 Olympic medal ceremony. Urging players to consider the political ramifications of attending the trip, the letter drew on the undeniable connections between the struggles faced by Black and Brown communities in the U.S., and Palestinian, Afro Palestinian, Eritrean and Sudanese communities in Israel and Palestine.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/app ... d17d278dbc

[rowan]

Farcical

A young Israeli soldier convicted of killing a Palestinian assailant lying wounded on the ground was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment on Tuesday, far less than prosecutors requested, in one of the most divisive cases in Israel's history.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israe ... SKBN16013W

[rowan]

Sweet Jeezuz!



Pretty sure the Jews themselves don't believe in the Bible - not the new testament anyway...

[rowan]

RIP

[rowan]

[Lord Lucan]

Some people seem to be judging Israel by our politically correct standards, which is sheer folly, if they were as soft as us, and by us I mean the western world, they'd have been overrun by the radicals long before now. The only way they can keep themselves safe is to rule with an iron fist, anything else and they would cease to exist.
Iran, Hezbollah and all the other radical nutcases, keep talking about wiping them off the face of the earth, but its just talk, the sort of talk you hear from a loud mouthed bully, when it comes down to it, the Israelis would wipe the floor with any army the arabs dare to confront them with, as they have done in the past.

[rowan]

Some people seem to be judging Israel by our politically correct standards, which is sheer folly, if they were as soft as us, and by us I mean the western world, they'd have been overrun by the radicals long before now. The only way they can keep themselves safe is to rule with an iron fist, anything else and they would cease to exist.
Iran, Hezbollah and all the other radical nutcases, keep talking about wiping them off the face of the earth, but its just talk, the sort of talk you hear from a loud mouthed bully, when it comes down to it, the Israelis would wipe the floor with any army the arabs dare to confront them with, as they have done in the past.

No, you're referring to universal standards accepted by all apart from those who openly persist in human rights violations. The radicals would be those on the side of the native population, presumably? Keep themselves safe from the native population whose land they have colonized, you mean? Iran has never said anything of the sort but has frequently been misquoted by the Western media as having said so. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, certainly threatened on at least one occasion to wipe Iran off the map. & let us now consider which of the two is the more warlike nation - the US, which has been involved in permanent war since 9/11 and almost non-stop since colonization, or Iran which hasn't attacked anybody in about the last 3 centuries? Hezbullah, meanwhile, was formed after Israel and Christian falangists carried out a horrific massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, including rape, mutilation and torture - and the world stood by and did nothing, as usual. They are a militant group, sworn to defend Muslims in their environs, and have humiliated the US-funded Israeli army on a number of occasions. In fact, the Arabs have often shown themselves to be better and braver fighters than the Israelis - and more humane in victory by far - but the Israelis have the best equipped military in the region thanks to America and in your childlike view of the world you perceive that as heroic.

Meanwhile:

US Senator Bernie Sanders said, on Monday, that Israeli military occupation runs against both American and Israeli values, and called for its end.

“We need to end this 50-year-long occupation,” he said, according to Haaretz.

“There is no question that we should be and will be Israel’s very strong friend and partner in years to come,” Sanders told the 2017 J Street National Conference. “But, we also need to recognize that the Israeli occupation runs contrary to American values and I believe, Israeli values, as well.”

The continued occupation and settlement construction, Sanders said, undermine peace efforts.

http://imemc.org/article/u-s-senator-be ... m=facebook

[rowan]

Murdering natives is not a serious crime in the colony of Israel, evidently . . .

An Israeli soldier sentenced to 18 months in prison for killing a wounded Palestinian attacker will not go to jail while he waits the outcome of his appeal.

20-year-old Elor Azaria was due to begin his prison term on Sunday. However, a court has accepted his lawyers’ request for a delay.

Azaria was sentenced in February for shooting 21-year-old Abdul Fatah al-Sharif in the West Bank city of Hebron in March 2016.

An appeal hearing is expected to start within the next six weeks.

http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/02/isra ... ing-appeal

[Lord Lucan]

Some people seem to be judging Israel by our politically correct standards, which is sheer folly, if they were as soft as us, and by us I mean the western world, they'd have been overrun by the radicals long before now. The only way they can keep themselves safe is to rule with an iron fist, anything else and they would cease to exist.
Iran, Hezbollah and all the other radical nutcases, keep talking about wiping them off the face of the earth, but its just talk, the sort of talk you hear from a loud mouthed bully, when it comes down to it, the Israelis would wipe the floor with any army the arabs dare to confront them with, as they have done in the past.

No, you're referring to universal standards accepted by all apart from those who openly persist in human rights violations. The radicals would be those on the side of the native population, presumably? Keep themselves safe from the native population whose land they have colonized, you mean? Iran has never said anything of the sort but has frequently been misquoted by the Western media as having said so. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, certainly threatened on at least one occasion to wipe Iran off the map. & let us now consider which of the two is the more warlike nation - the US, which has been involved in permanent war since 9/11 and almost non-stop since colonization, or Iran which hasn't attacked anybody in about the last 3 centuries? Hezbullah, meanwhile, was formed after Israel and Christian falangists carried out a horrific massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, including rape, mutilation and torture - and the world stood by and did nothing, as usual. They are a militant group, sworn to defend Muslims in their environs, and have humiliated the US-funded Israeli army on a number of occasions. In fact, the Arabs have often shown themselves to be better and braver fighters than the Israelis - and more humane in victory by far - but the Israelis have the best equipped military in the region thanks to America and in your childlike view of the world you perceive that as heroic.

Meanwhile:

US Senator Bernie Sanders said, on Monday, that Israeli military occupation runs against both American and Israeli values, and called for its end.

“We need to end this 50-year-long occupation,” he said, according to Haaretz.

“There is no question that we should be and will be Israel’s very strong friend and partner in years to come,” Sanders told the 2017 J Street National Conference. “But, we also need to recognize that the Israeli occupation runs contrary to American values and I believe, Israeli values, as well.”

The continued occupation and settlement construction, Sanders said, undermine peace efforts.

http://imemc.org/article/u-s-senator-be ... m=facebook

Your having a larf, have you forgotten the 6 day war? Yom Kippur? the Sinai was full of boots left by the fleeing Egyptian soldiers, the arabs have been routed in every conflict. More humane, really? since when has beheading people been humane, or burning people alive in cages, or lowering people into a swimming pool locked in a cage, how about lowering people into vats of acid, the list is endless.
The strong will always overcome the weak, the jews were given the land of Israel by God, the Romans kicked them out 2000 years ago, but no man can take it off them, they are back and are there to stay. There is naught the arabs can do to take it off them.

[rowan]

Some people seem to be judging Israel by our politically correct standards, which is sheer folly, if they were as soft as us, and by us I mean the western world, they'd have been overrun by the radicals long before now. The only way they can keep themselves safe is to rule with an iron fist, anything else and they would cease to exist.
Iran, Hezbollah and all the other radical nutcases, keep talking about wiping them off the face of the earth, but its just talk, the sort of talk you hear from a loud mouthed bully, when it comes down to it, the Israelis would wipe the floor with any army the arabs dare to confront them with, as they have done in the past.

No, you're referring to universal standards accepted by all apart from those who openly persist in human rights violations. The radicals would be those on the side of the native population, presumably? Keep themselves safe from the native population whose land they have colonized, you mean? Iran has never said anything of the sort but has frequently been misquoted by the Western media as having said so. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, certainly threatened on at least one occasion to wipe Iran off the map. & let us now consider which of the two is the more warlike nation - the US, which has been involved in permanent war since 9/11 and almost non-stop since colonization, or Iran which hasn't attacked anybody in about the last 3 centuries? Hezbullah, meanwhile, was formed after Israel and Christian falangists carried out a horrific massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, including rape, mutilation and torture - and the world stood by and did nothing, as usual. They are a militant group, sworn to defend Muslims in their environs, and have humiliated the US-funded Israeli army on a number of occasions. In fact, the Arabs have often shown themselves to be better and braver fighters than the Israelis - and more humane in victory by far - but the Israelis have the best equipped military in the region thanks to America and in your childlike view of the world you perceive that as heroic.

Meanwhile:

US Senator Bernie Sanders said, on Monday, that Israeli military occupation runs against both American and Israeli values, and called for its end.

“We need to end this 50-year-long occupation,” he said, according to Haaretz.

“There is no question that we should be and will be Israel’s very strong friend and partner in years to come,” Sanders told the 2017 J Street National Conference. “But, we also need to recognize that the Israeli occupation runs contrary to American values and I believe, Israeli values, as well.”

The continued occupation and settlement construction, Sanders said, undermine peace efforts.

http://imemc.org/article/u-s-senator-be ... m=facebook

Your having a larf, have you forgotten the 6 day war? Yom Kippur? the Sinai was full of boots left by the fleeing Egyptian soldiers, the arabs have been routed in every conflict. More humane, really? since when has beheading people been humane, or burning people alive in cages, or lowering people into a swimming pool locked in a cage, how about lowering people into vats of acid, the list is endless.
The strong will always overcome the weak, the jews were given the land of Israel by God, the Romans kicked them out 2000 years ago, but no man can take it off them, they are back and are there to stay. There is naught the arabs can do to take it off them.

Israel was caught with its pants down at the start of the Yom Kippur war and the West has created a lot of fiction to disguise the embarrassment. The Arabs were fighting to regain territory lost in the 1967 conflict when serial war criminal Ariel Sharon led a surprise attack on Egypt and other nations that slaughtered tens of thousands of unsuspecting Arab soldiers. As mentioned, the UN ruled against Israel on the subsequent territorial disputes. Egypt was particularly concerned with regaining control of the Sinai and thereby its canal, which Britain, France & Israel had been conspiring to take over since the end of WWII (google Lavon Affair for more).

Yes, Israel killed more Arabs than Arabs killed Israelis, just as the British killed more natives in the colonies than natives killed the British - and for precisely the same reason - but ultimately the Egyptians, at least, got what they want, and 9 years later the Sinai, and the canal, were back under Egyptian control.

So you are attributing the fictitious filmed-in-Hollywood crimes of Saudi-backed terrorists and US-backed mercenaries to Arab soldiers now? How very ironic. You must be expecting a visit from the Easter Bunny at the end of the month as well... Besides, what's so humane about dropping bombs on familys - as Israel did most recently in 2014, killing around 2000 civilians, at least a quarter of them children.

The expulsion of the Jews from Israel never actually happened. Their descendants are still there, only now they are called Palestinians and most of them have long since converted to Islam. The people who arrived last century to re-create the Biblical Israel were, initially, mostly Eastern Europeans seeking to flee Stalin rather than Hitler, and when research was undertaken to ascertain where the Jewish portion of their ancestry had come from it was established that it had mostly come from the Caspian region around northern Iran in the Middle Ages, while no connection to the actual Middle East was found at all. The Jews are followers of a religion, not a race, and Semites are a linguistic group - dominated by the Arabs themselves.

[Lord Lucan]

No, you're referring to universal standards accepted by all apart from those who openly persist in human rights violations. The radicals would be those on the side of the native population, presumably? Keep themselves safe from the native population whose land they have colonized, you mean? Iran has never said anything of the sort but has frequently been misquoted by the Western media as having said so. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, certainly threatened on at least one occasion to wipe Iran off the map. & let us now consider which of the two is the more warlike nation - the US, which has been involved in permanent war since 9/11 and almost non-stop since colonization, or Iran which hasn't attacked anybody in about the last 3 centuries? Hezbullah, meanwhile, was formed after Israel and Christian falangists carried out a horrific massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, including rape, mutilation and torture - and the world stood by and did nothing, as usual. They are a militant group, sworn to defend Muslims in their environs, and have humiliated the US-funded Israeli army on a number of occasions. In fact, the Arabs have often shown themselves to be better and braver fighters than the Israelis - and more humane in victory by far - but the Israelis have the best equipped military in the region thanks to America and in your childlike view of the world you perceive that as heroic.

Meanwhile:

US Senator Bernie Sanders said, on Monday, that Israeli military occupation runs against both American and Israeli values, and called for its end.

“We need to end this 50-year-long occupation,” he said, according to Haaretz.

“There is no question that we should be and will be Israel’s very strong friend and partner in years to come,” Sanders told the 2017 J Street National Conference. “But, we also need to recognize that the Israeli occupation runs contrary to American values and I believe, Israeli values, as well.”

The continued occupation and settlement construction, Sanders said, undermine peace efforts.

http://imemc.org/article/u-s-senator-be ... m=facebook

Your having a larf, have you forgotten the 6 day war? Yom Kippur? the Sinai was full of boots left by the fleeing Egyptian soldiers, the arabs have been routed in every conflict. More humane, really? since when has beheading people been humane, or burning people alive in cages, or lowering people into a swimming pool locked in a cage, how about lowering people into vats of acid, the list is endless.
The strong will always overcome the weak, the jews were given the land of Israel by God, the Romans kicked them out 2000 years ago, but no man can take it off them, they are back and are there to stay. There is naught the arabs can do to take it off them.

Israel was caught with its pants down at the start of the Yom Kippur war and the West has created a lot of fiction to disguise the embarrassment. The Arabs were fighting to regain territory lost in the 1967 conflict when serial war criminal Ariel Sharon led a surprise attack on Egypt and other nations that slaughtered tens of thousands of unsuspecting Arab soldiers. As mentioned, the UN ruled against Israel on the subsequent territorial disputes. Egypt was particularly concerned with regaining control of the Sinai and thereby its canal, which Britain, France & Israel had been conspiring to take over since the end of WWII (google Lavon Affair for more).

Yes, Israel killed more Arabs than Arabs killed Israelis, just as the British killed more natives in the colonies than natives killed the British - and for precisely the same reason - but ultimately the Egyptians, at least, got what they want, and 9 years later the Sinai, and the canal, were back under Egyptian control.

So you are attributing the fictitious filmed-in-Hollywood crimes of Saudi-backed terrorists and US-backed mercenaries to Arab soldiers now? How very ironic. You must be expecting a visit from the Easter Bunny at the end of the month as well... Besides, what's so humane about dropping bombs on familys - as Israel did most recently in 2014, killing around 2000 civilians, at least a quarter of them children.

The expulsion of the Jews from Israel never actually happened. Their descendants are still there, only now they are called Palestinians and most of them have long since converted to Islam. The people who arrived last century to re-create the Biblical Israel were, initially, mostly Eastern Europeans seeking to flee Stalin rather than Hitler, and when research was undertaken to ascertain where the Jewish portion of their ancestry had come from it was established that it had mostly come from the Caspian region around northern Iran in the Middle Ages, while no connection to the actual Middle East was found at all. The Jews are followers of a religion, not a race, and Semites are a linguistic group - dominated by the Arabs themselves.

Rubbish , it did happen, the Roman general Titus made it happen. As I said, God gave them that land, it is their's and no one can take it from them, they will destroy any army that comes their way. Whatever you say, they are still there, Hezbollah, Iran, Daesh, Jordan, Egypt, etc, etc, may not like it, well that is an understatement, they actually hate it and would love to invade tomorrow, but they know they would get their asses whooped.
They are there to stay buddy, like it not, the IDF women would whoop Hezbollah never mind the men.

[morepork]

"whoop"?

[rowan]

Britain’s subsequent export of submarines and hundreds of Centurion tanks to Israel was shrugged off with the same weasel-like excuses that British governments have ever since used to sell trillions of dollars of weapons to Israelis and Arabs alike: that if Britain didn’t arm them, others would.

In opposition in 1972, Harold Wilson claimed it was “utterly unreal” to call for an Israeli withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 war, adding that “Israel’s reaction is natural and proper in refusing to accept the Palestinians as a nation”. When the Palestinians first demanded a secular one-state solution to Palestine, they were denounced by a British diplomat (Anthony Parsons) who said that “a multinational, secular state” would be “wholly incompatible with our attitude toward Israel”. Indeed it would. When the PLO opposed Britain’s Falklands conflict, the Foreign Office haughtily admonished the Palestinians – it was “far removed” from their “legitimate concerns”, it noted – although it chose not to reveal that Argentine air force Skyhawk jets supplied by Israel were used to attack UK forces, and that Israel’s military supplies to Argentina continued during the war.

A year later, Margaret Thatcher, according to a note by Douglas Hurd, included “armed action against military targets of the occupying power” as a definition of “terrorism”. So the Palestinians could not even resist their direct occupiers without being criminals.





On an official visit to Israel in 1986, Thatcher said that she regarded discussion of Jerusalem as “internal politics”. In 2001, Tony Blair’s government granted 90 arms exports licences to Israel for “defensive” weapons – including torpedoes, armoured vehicles, bombs and missiles. There is much, much more of this in Cronin’s book, including Blair’s useless and disgraceful period as “peace” envoy to the Middle East and the growing business contracts between British companies and Israeli arms providers – to the extent that the British army ended up deploying Israeli-made drones in the skies of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Outside the EU, Theresa May’s Britain will maintain its close relations with Israel as a priority; hence May’s stated desire less than a month ago to sign a bilateral free trade agreement with Israel. This coincided with an Israeli attack on Gaza and a Knesset vote to confiscate – ie, steal – yet more lands from Palestinians in the West Bank.

From the day that Herbert Samuel, deputy leader of the Liberal Party and former (Jewish) High Commissioner for Palestine, said in the House of Commons in 1930 that Arabs “do migrate easily”, it seems that Britain has faithfully followed Balfour’s policies. More than 750,000 Palestinians were uprooted in their catastrophe, Cronin writes. Generations of dispossessed would grow up in the camps. Today, there are around five million registered Palestinian refugees. Britain was the midwife of that expulsion.

And this summer, we shall again be exhorted by Theresa May to remember the Balfour Declaration with “pride”.

[rowan]

Charming:

This year for Purim, many Israeli children are dressing up as Elor Azaria, the IDF soldier convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a neutralized terrorist [sic] in Hebron almost a year ago. “I’m not saying that he did the right thing but in my eyes he is a hero,” stated one grandmother of such a child. “He took the initiative. His commanders weren’t around, the scene wasn’t managed properly and he took command.”

https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli ... ay-ground/

[rowan]

Hopefully she'll croak first...


Queen Expected to Visit Israel in Marking Balfour Anniversary

Britain’s royal family might accept an official invitation to visit Israel to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, in a first visit of its kind since establishment of Israel, the Times reported, according to Al Ray.

Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli president, extended the invitation during a meeting with Boris Johnson in Jerusalem on Wednesday, noting that 2017 marked the centenary of the Balfour Declaration backing the establishment of a Jewish homeland.

“This is a very important year in the history of the relations between Israel and the United Kingdom,” Rivlin said. “We will mark 100 years since the Balfour Declaration and I am greatly honoured to extend an official invitation to the royal family to visit Israel to mark this event.

According to the paper, it is expected that the royal family wiil accept the invitation, this time. Such visits are usually done upon recommendations of Britain’s foreign ministry.

On November 2, 1917, Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour writes a letter to Britain’s most illustrious Jewish citizen, Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, expressing the British government’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

http://imemc.org/article/queen-to-visit ... m=facebook

[rowan]

Do these people realize they're only being kept around for tourism?

The British royal family may visit Israel in an official capacity later this year, on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, according to British media reports.
Though members of the royal family have traveled to Israel in the past on personal visits, an official visit of this kind would be a historic first.
President Reuven Rivlin reportedly extended the invitation at a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in Jerusalem last week, citing the importance of the Balfour centenary. According to Whitehall sources, such a visit could take place this year, the Independent reported.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.776883

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.776883