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Cyprus pro-Israel figure dies at 87
By Jean Cohen Updated: 02/Jan/2007 17:14


Prodromos Papavasiliou

NICOSIA (EJP)--- A Cypriot businessman, considered one of Israel’s greatest friends from the Island state, died last Saturday at the age of 87.

Prodromos Papavasiliou, known as Papa to many Israelis who could not pronounce his Greek name, had established close ties with the Jews of Palestine well before the establishment of the state.

During the war of Independence and even before that when Jews where incarcerated in British camps in Cyprus he helped Jewish people travel to British-ruled Palestine.

One of his motives was that both the Jews and the Cypriots fought for independence against the British.

In the film Exodus, based on the book of Leon Uris, Papavasiliou was the inspiration for the Cypriot character that helps the Haganah, the Jewish army in Palestine, with the equipment needed to smuggle the Jews out of the camps and on to the ship.

Massive help

Papavasiliou helped 52,384 Jewish refugees interned in the Cyprus camps between 1946 and 1949.

After the establishment of the state of Israel, Papavasiliou was the representative of the ZIM shipping company in Cyprus, and later the handler of Israeli airline El-Al in Cyprus.

In 1969, he set up the Cyprus-Israel Friendship Association, an organisation dedicated to closer ties between the two countries. He was also mayor of the city of Famagusta for many years.

Israel recognised Papavasiliou’s contributions. The Keren Hayesod fund planted a small forest in his name, the foreign ministry awarded him a certificate of recognition, and he was appointed honorary consul of Israel to Cyprus by Ezer Ẁeizman, president of the state .

Close ties

When the Turkish invasion in 1974 caught him outside the country. friends in Israel asked him to fly to Tel Aviv, and then arranged for a small ship, with an Israeli crew, to take him and his family back to Cyprus.

Rabbi Arie Zeev Raskin, the rabbi of the Cyprus Jewish community, expressed emotion at the passing of Papavasiliou. “Papa” will be missed and remembered by the Jewish Community at-large and Israel for his unconditional friendship, constant support, significant personal contribution and remarkable involvement to the prosperous and successful settlement of Jews in Cyprus during the past six decades,” he said.

Around 100 Jews live on the Mediterranean island.

http://www.ejpress.org/article/news/12632