Former Israeli president celebrates country’s oldest university with colourful comments - The Jewish Chronicle

The hundreth birthday of Israel’s oldest university was celebrated in London on Sunday evening, with Israel’s former president, Reuven Rivlin paying tribute to the Technion, which invented the Iron Dome defence system.

In conversation with JC editor Jake Wallis Simons, Rivlin told the 300 guests that he was “proud” to be marking the centenary of the Israel Institute of Technology after “one of the most challenging years” in Israel’s history.

Speaking at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Rivlin caused a stir when he said: “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.”

The former president added that whilst “our effort is something to write home about by anyone’s standards”, Israel was battling not against freedom fighters who want a Palestinian state but people who “just want to get rid of Israel, and that is something that cannot be fought or stopped without a strategy”.

Topics:

Technion

Technion UK

Reuven Rivlin

Editor’s picks

I’m a proud gay Jew who was rejected by the LGBT+ community

Out and proud: Josh Rose, and pictured at a demo on the BBC website

‘My animated Shoah movie tells truths that kids will understand’

Hand-drawn visions: a scene from The Most Precious of Cargoes. Director Michel Hazanavicius drew all of the characters in the film himself Photo: Ex Nihilo

How Henry VIII turned to rabbis to divorce wife No1

Marital issues: Jerry Rabow and his book

Like mother used to make

Jews at UCL ‘terrorised’ by students amid demands of ‘Zionists off campus’

Jewish staff and students at UCL have detailed their experience on a campus which, they say, is overwhelmingly hostile to Israel. (Photo: Getty Images)