Jewish Veterans Gather to Mark Remembrance Sunday at Ramle War Cemetery

Some 250 people, including dozens of Jewish veterans of the British armed forces, gathered Sunday at an annual memorial service for fallen soldiers at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Ramle.

Remembrance Sunday is held on the Sunday nearest to November 11, the anniversary of the end of the First World War. The day also commemorates soldiers and civilians killed in all wars since.

Those present, most wearing traditional red paper poppies made by disabled ex-servicemen and women, observed two-minute silence for all who have died in the service of their countries.

British Ambassador to Israel Tom Phillips, speaking at the ceremony, expressed the hope that the memorial service would send a message of "reconciliation between peoples and nations."

"Coming together as the representative of so many nations who have known war in our history, and conflict between each other," Phillips said, "we collectively send a signal of hope that even the most bitter of conflicts can come to an end, and of reconciliation between peoples and nations."

As part of the service, representatives of diplomatic missions to Israel laid wreaths at the Stone of Remembrance, a monument at the entrance to the cemetery.

The religious service was conducted by Reverend Samuel Fanous, of the Emmanuel Anglican Episcopal Church in Ramle. A service led by the Israel Defense Forces chief cantor, Lieutenant Colonel Haim Weiner, was then held in the Jewish section of the cemetery.