King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola of Belgium arrived at Lydda Airport this morning aboard a Belgian Air Force plane which flew the royal couple from Jordan after making a detour out to sea because of Jordanian objections to any direct approach to Israel. The King and his entourage, who will spend two days in Israel, had previously been scheduled to cross into Israel via the Mandalbaum Gate. but these plans were abandoned also at Jordanian insistence.
President Zalman Shazar was on hand to greet the royal couple at the airport after which King Baudouin inspected a guard of honor of Israel’s Nahal military-agricultural units. The King then left for Jerusalem in President Shazar’s limousine while Queen Fabiola, who was presented with a bouquet of flowers by the members of the Ben Shemen village youth orchestra named for Belgian Queen Elisabeth, rode in a car with Mrs. Shazar. The entire entourage comprising personal aides, interpreters, secretaries and members of the press, traveled in a convoy of 18 limousines.
The royal entourage was greeted on their arrival in Jerusalem by Mayor Mordechai Ish-Shalom and then proceeded through the decorated streets of the city to Munt Zion where they visited the Church of the Dormition and lit six candles in the Martyrs Chamber in memory of the 6,000,000 Jews who were murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War. Later in the day, the King and Queen were guests at a luncheon given by President Shazar which was also attended by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, Cabinet Ministers, members of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and justices of the Supreme Court.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
