Speaking at the event were British Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey and Israel's Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, who furnished praise on their respective countries for their cooperative achievements and robust diplomatic ties.
“Tonight we celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday but we also, here in Israel, want to celebrate another year of the friendship and partnership between the two countries. We have seen remarkable successes in this last year,” said Quarrey, before citing the expansion into Israel of large British companies such as Barclays, Rolls-Royce, HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and BT.
Quarrey mentioned London’s new Mayor Sadiq Khan’s intention to visit Israel, boasted the existence of 100 Israeli tech companies in London alone and said that scientific cooperation has never been stronger in a myriad of fields including research in diabetes and heart disease and security and defense.
He also addressed the BDS movement and stated Britain’s “unequivocal stance against (them). But more important is what we stand for: a strong partnership between our two countries.”
Asked where he would like to take the Queen if she were to visit Israel, the ambassador told Ynetnews, “I think the challenge with Israel is that there are so many places to go, such rich architecture, archaeology and history here. I think that would be the difficulty, the wealth of opportunity.” However, he added that he did not know whether Israel would be treated to a first visit by Her Majesty the Queen this year.
For his part, Minister Levin expressed his gratitude for the British leadership’s condemnation of anti-Semitic comments made by Ken Livingstone and former MP Naz Shah.
“Unfortunately we recently witnessed anti-Semitic expressions by British figures and we do appreciate the British leadership’s strong condemnations of such expressions,” Levin said. “Prime Minister (David) Cameron deserves praise for his repeated expressions of friendship with Israel. The prime minister reiterated Britain's support on issues such as boycotts etc.”
Following the speeches, the Royal Air Force band played the British and Israeli national anthems before guests were able to indulge in a lavish buffet of food and drinks while enjoying the popular music played by a Beatles cover band.
Ynetnews also managed to catch up with the RAF band to ask how it felt to be playing for the Queen’s birthday in Israel. “It feels absolutely fantastic," said Paul and Terry, adding that "Hava Nagila was fantastic to play."
"It is a fantastic country and we have been well looked after," they went on to say. "The thing we have noticed the most is how friendly the people are. That has been a knock-out for us. They have been so welcoming.”