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'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
September 12, 2022 09:16
Lord Polak hit out at the Foreign Office, which prevented Her Majesty from seeing the holy sites
September 12, 2022 09:16In 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.”