‘HONOURED KILLERS’ REBUKE

Daily Telegraph, 28 June 1975

By Our Diplomatic Staff

BRITAIN has rebuked the Israeli Government over its honouring of the two gunmen who murdered Lord Moyne, British Resident Minister in the Middle East, in 1944.

Whitehall's protest at the official funeral of the two assassins in Jerusalem on Thursday was conveyed by Sir Bernard Ledwidge, Ambassador to Israel, yesterday.

Sir Bernard was ordered to say that Britain “very much regretted that an act of terrorism should be honoured in this way”. The Israelis were understood to have rejected the representations and said they preferred to call the gunmen “heroic freedom fighters.”

The remains of the two men were returned to Jerusalem from Cairo and buried with full military honours on Mount Herzl. The funeral was attended by Mr Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister.

Lord Moyne was murdered as a protest against British restrictions on Jewish immigration into what was then Palestine. The assassins were hanged.

‘No beating by officers’

Our TEL Aviv CORRESPONDENT reports Gen. Mordechai Gur Israeli Army Chief of Staff, told foreign correspondents in Tel Aviv yesterday that they would not be beaten by military officers while covering news in Israel.

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