Today is the 70th anniversary of the international recognition of the right of the state of Israel to exist. This continues to be challenged by many Palestinians.

On 29/11/1947 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that gave international legitimacy to divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states.

The UK recognition in the 1917 Balfour Declaration of the right of the Jewish people to have a homeland triggered its incorporated into the international San Remo Resolution on 25/4/1920, and led eventually to international recognition of the Jewish state of Israel 70 years ago today.

I welcome with Mark Regev, Israeli Ambassador in Britain, the opportunity to celebrate such a significant event.

The world needs Israeli technology, which is making significant contributions to the welfare of mankind.

Meanwhile, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, backed by Iran, want to wipe the state of Israel off the map. They do not want a two-state solution. Their international BDS movement against Israel (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) is a self-defeating expenditure of energy that could be better employed in making the world a better place, as Israel tries to do.

Happy 70th birthday to the state of Israel.

‘Shall the Earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children’ Isa 66:8.