Paul Calvert spoke with Rosie Ross, a representative of Love Never Fails

Rosie: We have had a good response from British Christians. We have got a good number coming over from Britain at the moment; I have around 70 people signed up. This includes several who are not British, but have some British connection and they are standing with us in what we are seeking to do, but people are coming in at the last minute all the time. I have also heard that somebody has said that one of the heads of a particular Synagogue in the UK had heard about the event and were considering coming, so I think this is going to be one of those things that comes together at the last minute as many things do in Israel. The publicity is still going out in Israel and I have been speaking to several Israelis who assure me they are coming. Atlit detention camp is sending out publicity. We have a former member of the Israeli Knesset who will be speaking; some of you will have seen him in the film The Forsaken Promise. His name is Shlomo Hillel and he is aged 91. He will be speaking at our ceremony and we are very thankful that he has been so gracious towards us in our attempts to make reconciliation with the Jewish people over what happened in the Mandate.

Memorial to those who perished at sea on their journey to Israel (donated by British Christians)

Paul: What do you hope will come out of this event in terms of healing the past and building stronger relations between Jews and Christians in the future?

Rosie: I believe what needs to come out from the point of view of the British Christians is an awareness that we are still very blind about this period of history. We can make statements about how there needs to be peace in the Middle East and how Israel needs to push for the peace process, but what about taking responsibility for our own history and really coming in humility before the Jewish people concerning what happened.

We know that many Jewish people still deeply carry the wounds of what happened during this time. We are meeting them, getting to know them and meeting their families. We know there is a deep wound left in the hearts of many Jewish people and not just in the individual hearts, but in the heart of Israel as a whole because of how Britain betrayed her, having made certain promises under the Balfour Declaration.

There was within Britain from the 16th and 17th century onwards a real move to support the return of the Jewish people to their homeland. This was started because many people were reading their Bibles and understanding from their scriptures that in the scriptures it says that God is going to bring his Jewish people back from the four corners of the earth. So we in Britain need to get back to that positive heritage, that heritage that is there in the Church. We need to look at that heritage and consider it and look at our Bibles in a completely different way to the way in which many British people are reading their Bibles.

Paul: Are you wanting and are you pushing for an apology from the British Government?

Rosie: We would very much like to see an apology from the British Government. I have been in touch with the British Embassy here and sadly at the moment we don't have anyone coming to represent them, but I will continue to make them aware of what we are doing. I do feel though that God calls the Church to a place of repentance and that we can't expect the British Government to apologise when there hasn't been a formal apology from Church leaders in Britain and I believe that needs to come first.