UK's Prince William Visits Israel, West Bank in a Historic Royal Visit

Prince William has arrived in Israel for the first-ever official visit of a member of the British royal family to the tumultuous region London once ruled.

Arriving from neighbouring Jordan, the Duke of Cambridge landed at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport yesterday and then departed to Jerusalem, where he will stay at the elegant King David Hotel, site of the former administrative headquarters of the British mandate. William’s trip will conclude in Ramallah in the West Bank on Thursday.

“The historic nature of this tour is of course important and The Duke considers it a great privilege to be undertaking the first ever official Royal tour of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and to be able to help further strengthen the friendship between Jordan and the United Kingdom,” Kensington Palace said in a statement. “The complex challenges in the region are of course well known. The non-political nature of His Royal Highness’s role – in common with all Royal visits overseas – allows a spotlight to be brought to bear on the people of the region: their cultures, their young people, their aspirations, and their experiences,” the statement said.

Three decades of British rule between the two world wars helped establish some of the fault lines of today's Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Britain's withdrawal in 1948 led to the eventual establishment of Israel and Jordan.

Britain has since taken a back seat to the United States in mediating peace efforts, and the royal family has mostly steered clear of the region's toxic politics.

For the 36-year-old William, second in line to the throne, it marks a high-profile visit that could burnish his international credentials.

Though the trip is being billed as non-political, and places a special emphasis on technology and joint Israeli-Arab projects, William will also be meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and visiting landmark Jerusalem sites at the heart of the century-old conflict.

Today, he will visit Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, where he will meet two survivors who escaped Nazi Germany for the safety of Britain. The memorial has recognized Prince William's great-grandmother, Princess Alice, as Righteous Among the Nations for her role in rescuing Jews during the Holocaust.

In a 1994 visit to Yad Vashem, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, planted a tree there in his mother's honour. Princess Alice hid three members of the Cohen family in her palace in Athens during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II. Thanks to her, the Cohen family survived and today lives in France. The princess died in 1969, and in 1988 her remains were brought to Jerusalem.

Later, the prince will meet Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before heading to coastal Tel Aviv to attend a football game of young Jewish and Arab players. He'll also meet the mayor of Tel Aviv and attend a reception the British ambassador is holding in his honour. In West Bank, he will also meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

"It is the right moment we think for a visit to really shine a light on that relationship and show how strong the contemporary relationship is between the two countries," Ambassador David Quarrey told The Associated Press. (With Agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 26, 2018 03:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).