Photo Credit: Haim Zach / GPO
L-R: British Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sara Netanyahu, Britain's Prince William Duke of Cambridge

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara met briefly with Britain’s Prince William on Tuesday at midday ahead of a gala reception scheduled to honor His Royal Highness later in the evening at the home of Britain’s Ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, in Ramat Gan.

Netanyahu and his wife met the Duke of Cambridge at the official Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, together with descendants of Haimaki and Rachel Cohen, who were saved during the Holocaust by Princess Alice, Prince William’s great-grandmother. Haimaki Cohen was a Jew and former member of the Greek parliament from Tricala in northern Greece.

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The meeting took place following Prince William’s tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

“We were very pleased to host Prince William on the first official royal visit to Israel by a member of the British royal family,” Netanyahu said. “We discussed many things: Our respective military service, helicopters, soccer and the World Cup.

“There was a very moving moment in Prince William’s visit. He is the great-grandson of Princess Alice. He met descendants of the family that she saved in Greece. She was there and protected a Jewish family from the Gestapo. We just met her descendants that met with him.

“I told him that he must be very proud of his great-grandmother for saving defenseless Jews, and as Prime Minister of Israel I am very proud that Jews are no longer defenseless. We have, thank G-d, an army to defend ourselves by ourselves.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife gave the Duke of Cambridge a replica of a Righteous Among the Nations Certificate for Princess Alice, who was granted the title in 1993.

The Netanyahus later attended a reception for Prince William held at the residence of British Ambassador David Quarrey. During the event, the prime minister, his wife and the prince viewed an exhibit of the technological developments of four Israeli companies.

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Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.