Israeli President Reuven Rivlin told attendees of a Technion gala event in London that the relationship between Israel and the late Queen Elizabeth II was “difficult.”

“The relationship between us and Queen Elizabeth was a little bit difficult because she believed that every one of us was either a terrorist or a son of a terrorist,” Rivlin said at the gala according to British Jewish News.

“She refused to accept any Israeli official into [Buckingham] Palace, apart from international occasions,” Rivlin added.

However, Rivlin said that King Charles III was always “So friendly” to Israeli officials.

Although Queen Elizabeth had cordial ties with Jewish leaders and Israeli ministers, she never visited Israel in her lifetime.

By contrast, when he was King Charles was Prince of Wales, he made unofficial visits to Israel in 1995 and 2016 to attend the funerals of Yitzchak Rabin and Simon Peres respectively.

He made his first official visit to Israel in 2020 when he represented the United Kingdom in the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem.

In 2009, British historian Andrew Roberts said the Queen’s unofficial policy of boycotting Israel is a result of “Arabists” within the UK’s Foreign Office:

“The true reason, of course, is that the FO [Foreign Office] has a ban on official royal visits to Israel, which is even more powerful for its being unwritten and unacknowledged.”

“As an act of delegitimization of Israel, this effective boycott is quite as serious as other similar acts, such as the academic boycott, and is the direct fault of the FO Arabists,” Roberts added.

In 2018, Prince William, the Queen’s grandson and future heir to the throne, broke with tradition by becoming the first British royal to visit Israel on an official trip. During his tour of Israel and Jordan, he also met with representatives from the Palestinian Authority.

He also paid his respects at the Jerusalem tomb of his grandmother, Princess Alice, who is honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for sheltering Jews during the Holocaust.

She was buried at the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene, located just outside the Old City.

Photo: Reuters