Graham Greene, the noted British author who is in Israel to receive the Jerusalem Prize for literature, had warm words of praise for the development of Jerusalem since he was last in the city just after the Six-Day War. And the man who has written many books about intelligence matters also had praise for the Mossad, Israel’s secret service, noting that “in the intelligence world, the Mossad has a very high reputation.”
He told a crowded news conference in Jerusalem yesterday: “When I come in 1967 it was only a few months after your Six-Day War, and one was very aware of the physical scars and the mental scars.
“So much has changed for the better, it seems to me…! admire tremendously the new building that has been going on. When new buildings go up in Europe they nearly always destroy the character of the city, in Paris or London. Your new buildings enlarge the character of the city and don’t destroy it. I was also very impressed with the work on the walls and the planting of trees.”
The Jerusalem Prize is awarded once in two years, to an author whose work expresses the “liberty of man in society.” Greene’s works include” The Confidential Agent (1939), “The Power and the Glory (1940), “The Heart of the Matter”(1948), “The Quiet American” (1955), and “Our Man in Havana” (1958).
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.
