‘May the memory of Prince Philip be a blessing’ – Israel sends condolences

‘May the memory of Prince Philip be a blessing’ – Israel sends condolences

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Israeli officials expressed their condolences after the British royal family on Friday announced the death of Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, formally known as the Duke of Edinburgh. “My deepest condolences and sympathy to HM Queen Elizabeth II, HRH, the Prince of Wales, the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom,” tweeted Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, adding: “May his memory be a blessing be.’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also expressed his “condolences to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, the royal family and the people of the United Kingdom on the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip was the perfect civil servant and will be greatly missed in Israel. and around the world. ‘

Both opposition leader and chief Yesh Atid Paty, Yair Lapid, and Labor leader Merav Michaeli were one of the first of Israel’s key political figures to express support for the royal family. Michaeli added that ‘Philip served the people of the United Kingdom with honor and dedication. Gideon Sa’ar, head of the new hope, tweeted: “Prince Philip was a man of determination and will be remembered for his lifetime of service to the people of the United Kingdom. “

A Greek prince, Philip married the queen in 1947 and had her entire 69-year-old government by her side. ‘ His Royal Highness passed away peacefully at Windsor Castle this morning. Further announcements will be made in due course. The royal family is joining forces with people around the world in mourning over his loss, “reads the statement from the Royal Family.

Philip spent four weeks in hospital earlier this year for treatment for an infection to get a heart procedure, but returned to Windsor in early March. He was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital on February 16 after feeling ill for treatment for an unspecified, but not COVID-19-related, infection.

Philip’s four sisters each married German nobles, of whom at least three became Nazis. But Philip, trained in Britain, joined the Allied war effort. As an adult, he showed little patience with Nazi collaborators; he was instrumental in making a pariah of Uncle Edward’s wife, who, after renouncing the throne, fell with Nazi Germany.

Philip has spoken several times over the years during Jewish and pro-Israel occasions.

The prince, who had a passion for preserving the environment, spoke several times at the Jewish National Fund events and granted his royal sponsorship to other Jewish events. He came under attack in the 1960s for speaking to pro-Israel groups, and, famously impenetrable to criticism, ignored the attacks.

Philip’s support for Jewish and pro-Israel affairs ran deep. His mother, Princess Alice of Greece, sheltered a Jewish family during the Holocaust and is recognized by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, as one of less than 30,000 “righteous among the nations.”

This is noted in the condolence statement of the chairman of the Jewish Agency, Isaac Herzog, when he tweeted that the “Duke of Edinburgh was part of a generation that fought the Nazis in World War II. His mother was a Just Among the Nations. “

Naftali Bennett, head of Yamina, tweeted with his condolences, saying: “As the son of a Righteous Among the Nations, and as one dedicated to the British people [Prince Philip] will be remembered with affection. ‘While she died at Buckingham Palace in 1963, the remains of the princess were transferred from Windsor Castle in 1988 to Mary Magdalene’s Church in the Russian Orthodox Monastery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Her grave was visited in 2018 by her great-grandson Prince William, the grandson of the Duke in June 2018, 70 years after Britain ended its mandate in Palestine. His arrival was the first state visit to Israel by a member of the British royal family. Two years later in January In 2020, his father, Prince Charles, arrived on his first extensive visit to Israel to attend the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, celebrating 75 years since the liberation of the Red Army from Auschwitz. (Charles came to Israel shortly afterwards in 1995 for the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin, and again in 2016 for the funeral of Shimon Peres).

In 1994, Philip was the first British royal to visit Israel, when he accepted the recognition of Yad Vashem from his mother and visited her cemetery in Jerusalem.

In Yad Vashem, Philip planted a maple tree in memory of his mother, who married Prince Andrew of Greece and helped hide three members of the family of a departed Greek-Jewish politician in her palace in Athens. The Gestapo was suspicious of Alice and even questioned her, but the princess, who was deaf, pretended not to understand their questions. Alice later became a nun.

“The Holocaust was the most horrific event in Jewish history, and it will remain in the memory of all future generations,” Philip said at the time. “So it’s a very generous gesture that is also remembered here are the millions of non-Jews, like my mother, who shared in your pain and anxiety and did in a small way to alleviate the horror.”

The visit in 1994 breaks with the then unofficial, yet binding ban on royals traveling to Israel, enforced after violence by Zionist fighters against British targets in the years preceding the establishment of the State of Israel in what preceded 1948. was the British mandate over Palestine.

Philip’s visit in 1994 was in a personal capacity, despite all his possessions. The Royal House ended its policy on official visits to Israel in 2018, following Prince William’s visit to Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan.

Philip’s retirement from public life in 2017 led to the outpouring of feathers for a good life by Jewish groups and leaders.

Those groups expressed grief over his death Friday. Philip’s life “was spent in the public service, from his active service in the navy during World War II to the tens of thousands of commitments he made during six and a half decades of royal duties,” the President of the Council of Deputies said. of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl, wrote in a statement.

Reuters and Herb Keinon contributed to this report.

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