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Israel’s Rivlin marks 70th anniversary of last Jewish camps in Cyprus
NICOSIA, Feb 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Israeli President Reuven Rivlin flew in
to Cyprus Tuesday to mark 70 years since the closure of British detention
camps on the island for Jews trying to reach Palestine after World War II.
He was to visit a monument in Nicosia dedicated to the 2,200 children of
Holocaust survivors who were born in the British colonial camps between 1946
and 1949.
Rivlin also held talks with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades.
Cyprus and Israel aim to upgrade relations, “especially on energy,
security, economy, tourism, research and innovation”, tweeted Anastasiades.
Britain, the colonial power in Cyprus and Palestine at the time, detained
about 52,000 illegal immigrants on Cyprus, mostly young orphans, and housed
them in tents.
The monument is situated at a present-day army camp that was known as the
British Military Hospital.
Those detained had been intercepted at sea by British mandate authorities
as they approached Palestine, and they were held in 12 camps on the nearby
island.
The camps were closed a year after the 1948 establishment of the state of
Israel.
“Some of the babies born in Cyprus… are now Israeli citizens in their
early 70s… Today, there is a very active organisation of ‘Cyprus babies’ in
Israel,” the Jerusalem Post said Monday.
BSS/AFP/RY/1752 hrs