Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein announced yesterday that Prime Minister David Cameron will address the Knesset next Wednesday.
Cameron was scheduled to visit Israel last month, but was forced to postpone the trip in order to oversee efforts to contain the damage from severe floods across southern England. Cameron and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later spoke by phone and agreed to set a new date for Cameron’s visit.
Edelstein, who briefly met Cameron at the Nelson Mandela memorial event in Johannesburg in December, announced yesterday that Cameron will address the Knesset next Wednesday, commenting, “I welcome the arrival of the Prime Minister of a great and important country like Britain to address the Knesset and believe that the visit will contribute to the friendship between Britain and Israel as well as the relations between the two countries.”
Edelstein added, “I’m glad the Knesset is once again taking its place as the central platform for world leaders to speak to the Israeli people,” with French President Francois Hollande, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Parliament President Martin Schulz having addressed the Knesset during the past year. Gordon Brown was the last British Prime Minister to speak at the Knesset plenum in 2008.
Cameron’s visit will be his first to Israel since becoming Prime Minister in 2010. In January, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited London, where following a meeting with Foreign Secretary William Hague he stated his support for US peace efforts. Hague visited Israel last May and during his visit he signed a wide-ranging memorandum of understanding to boost scientific cooperation. In December, Israeli Education Minister Shai Piron met Education Secretary Michael Gove in London. Meanwhile, trade between the UK and Israel is worth an estimated £5.1billion alongside growing cooperation in the areas of science, education and technology.
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