Queen Elizabeth never visited Israhell

[yankeedoodle]

Over 120 Countries, but Never Israel: Queen Elizabeth II's Unofficial Boycott
In her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II crisscrossed the globe, but purposely skipped Israel. In 1984, during a visit to Jordan, she found the settlements 'depressing' and the Air Force's planes frightening
https://archive.ph/Bl5ly#selection-433.0-437.207

In 1986, Margaret Thatcher became the first British leader to visit Israel. Journalist David Landau, later Haaretz editor-in-chief, dared to ask her when the queen would visit. "But I'm here," the Iron Lady replied. In 2014, not long before he passed, Landau was awarded the OBE for his contributions to Israeli-British relations. He did not ask the queen directly why she refrained from visiting here.

"When there is sustainable peace," was the answer stammered by official British representatives whenever they were asked why the Queen is boycotting the State of Israel. This, of course, didn't stop the queen from visiting Arab countries. She did not reverse this boycott throughout her 70 years on the throne, despite being the best-traveled world leader, with over 120 countries visited and around a million miles traversed in her tours. "Is there another member state of the UN which the British royal family treats with such consistent and studied contempt?" Landau wondered.

Cognoscenti would explain that it is the British Foreign Service that decides such things, and that it is doing so out of supposed spite. This, among other reasons, as "revenge" for the violent Israeli resistance to the British mandate, and having established a state on its ruins. Others said that the British are afraid to antagonize the Arab world, and that is why the Queen won't show her face here.

But had she truly wanted to, the Queen could have popped over for a visit. "The sad but inescapable conclusion, therefore, is that she herself is part of this nasty, petty British intrigue to deny Israel that rankling vestige of legitimation that is in their power to bestow or withhold – a royal visit.," Landau wrote in Haaretz over a decade ago, in an article where he called upon the monarch to "bin these sour-smelling inhibitions and end this boycott."

Some British royals visited Israel over the years, but Buckingham Palace always went out of its way to make it clear that the visit is neither royal, nor official. Thus it was in 1994, when Prince Phillip came to receive the Righteous Among the Nations award on behalf of his mother, who is buried in Jerusalem. In 1995 Charles, then Prince of Wales, came to attend Rabin's funeral. A change came only in the 70th anniversary of Israel's independence, in 2018, when Prince William arrived for a visit, that was termed as official, even if it was meaningless. Two years later his father Charles, soon to be crowned king, visited here for the international Holocaust forum, held to mark 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. The Queen, however, maintained her boycott.

Not all Israelis wanted such a visit, either way. "Elizabeth II is the daughter of George VI, the king on whose behalf Jewish freedom fighters were hanged in the Land of Israel; The king whose navy blocked the way of refugees to the Land of Israel, leading to their death. The hangman's daughter is not welcome in Israel," a commenter wrote on Haaretz's website.

Others mentioned the dark episodes in her family's past, mainly her uncle, Edward VIII, the family's black sheep, whose list of sins also includes Nazi sympathies. In 2015, British tabloid The Sun published a family film from 1933 showing the seven-year-old Princess Lilybeth saluting in the Nazi fashion alongside her mother, sister, and uncle. The Palace expressed disappointment at the dissemination of the old footage, but declined to explain the background to it.

The Queen's fans, on the other hand, are quick to point out in her "favor" that a Jewish mohel circumcised her son Charles, in the best tradition of the royal family, deriving from a claim to Davidic descent.

The closest she came to visiting here was in 1984, when she toured Jordan. The visit provided a few quotes seen as hostile to Israel. Among other things, it was reported that Her Highness was disturbed when Israeli jets passed overhead as she looked at the West Bank from across the river. "How frightening," she muttered then. King Hussein's wife, Queen Nour, replied: "It's terrible." Later on, upon being shown a map of the West Bank with the settlements marked on it, she said: "What a depressing map."

[abduLMaria]

so maybe she had one tiny shred of conscience ?

Didn't help much.

[yankeedoodle]

Sad' that the Queen was never allowed to visit Israel, says peer
Lord Polak hit out at the Foreign Office, which prevented Her Majesty from seeing the holy sites
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/sad-that-the-queen-was-never-allowed-to-visit-israel-says-peer-7IbseXq3uvZfm9oMb7wF8U?reloadTime=1663082817305

In a moving speech, Lord Polak paid tribute to the Queen in the House of Lords – but levelled searing criticism at the Foreign Office for preventing her from visiting Israel.

The Tory peer, who was director of Conservative Friends of Israel for more than 25 years, criticised the convention that forbids members of the Royal Family from visiting the Jewish state.

Lord Polak, wearing a kippah, told his fellow peers: "The tributes to Her Majesty have all been magnificent, but I listened particularly carefully to Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, whose tribute included the line: 'there was almost no part of the world she had not visited'.

"Sir John was right. I will concentrate for a moment on the word 'almost'. On 22 June 2016, the night before the EU referendum, I was at a small dinner with a few people raising a little bit of money for Gordonstoun (the private school where King Charles lll and his father, Prince Philip, were educated) at the home of the Princess Royal.

"As I was leaving, I said to the headmaster that I would happily come up to the school and speak to the students about politics. Princess Anne turned round and said - 'I think they'd be more interested in your previous work'.

"We had a conversation and discussed how the Royal Family were prohibited by the Foreign Office from visiting Israel. We agreed that it was and is sad that the Queen, as someone who was deeply religious and God-fearing, never walked down the Via Dolorosa into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem or experienced the peace and tranquillity on the shores of the Sea of Galilee."

Lord Polak had earlier in his tribute told peers: "I know I speak on behalf of the whole House when I say we miss the late (Chief Rabbi) Lord Sacks, who would have known exactly what to say." He also explained that "the only one prayer that was said in English," in his childhood Synagogue in Liverpool was the prayer that will be said tomorrow "in synagogues up and down the country".

He added: "I will read it as it was done last week: 'He who giveth salvation unto kings and dominion unto princes, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, may he bless our sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth and all the Royal Family. May the supreme King of kings, in his mercy, preserve the Queen in life, guard her and deliver her from all trouble and sorrow.'"

He said that the prayer would now be said for King Charles lll. Lord Polak said he had "been listening to so many personal stories of how Her Majesty touched the lives of so many, even just for a fleeting moment," and detailed an anecdote from 1971 in which his mother and late grandmother had an amusing encounter with the Queen at Royal Ascot. 

"My grandmother at the time thought she was part of the Royal Family and we did not tell her that she was not," he joked. "On the way back from the paddock to the enclosure, my grandma Leah touched the back of the Queen Mother and said, 'Ma'am, you look beautiful.'

"As the heavies suddenly came round to where my mum—who was deeply embarrassed—was, the Queen Mother said, 'Hang on', and turned to my grandmother and said, 'And, if I may say so, you look beautiful too.'

"At this point, both embarrassed daughters, Her Majesty the Queen and my mother turned round at the same moment and said, 'Oh mummy.'.

"This moment, this 10-second encounter, stayed with my late grandmother her whole life, and has stayed with my mother to this day."

Lord Polak concluded by reciting an English translation of Psalm 11, a passage often recited in Hebrew at Jewish funerals, telling the House: "You will make known to me the path of life; In your presence is fullness of joy, at your right-hand bliss for evermore." He wrapped up the speech with the traditional Jewish honorific, "Yehi zichra baruch—may Her Majesty's memory be for a blessing."