British Ambassador during the visit
British Ambassador during the visitJabotinsky Institute

The British Ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, visited the Jabotinsky Institute in Tel Aviv as part of events marking the centenary of the founding of the British Army's Jewish Legion during World War I.

During the visit, he was presented, among other things, with the writings of Zeev Jabotinsky, the founder of the Revisionist Zionist movement and a cofounder of the Jewish Legion, and senior British officials, among them Winston Churchill, Lord Chamberlain, and General Allenby.

Ambassador Quarrey received from the institute's administration, CEO Gidon Mitchnik and Director former MK Yossi Ahimeir, a picture of the Jewish battalions marching in the streets of London.

"If you enter a bookstore in London, you can find a book about Ben-Gurion, but not about Jabotinsky. He is a leader whose consciousness was pushed aside and this is unfortunate, as he was an important leader," Quarrey said.

In the guest book he wrote: "Thank you for this wonderful and exciting visit, which has many touches of rich and complex history between the United Kingdom and Israel. I learned a lot.”

"This is an important visit by the Ambassador of Britain, a country which for Zeev Jabotinsky was a source of hope, friendship, partnership, disappointment and even hostility," said Gidon Mitchnik, CEO of the Jabotinsky Institute.

"At the focus of the visit, we presented and emphasized to the ambassador the beginning of the security partnership and the deep connection between the British nation and the Jewish people that began with the establishment of the Jewish Legion, and recommended that an event be held to commemorate the departure from London of the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. We granted the ambassador a picture as a reminder of the historic event, which took place on February 4, on the streets of London.”

"The importance of the visit becomes even more acute in light of the tense and hostile history between the British administration of those days and the leader of the Revisionist movement, who also sat in British prison for his activities in defense of the Jews of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem during the [Arab] riots of 1920."