Prince William comes to Israel under a Foreign Office cloud

Jun 22, 2018 by

by Melanie Phillips:

Next week the second in line to the British throne, Prince William, will make the first ever official visit to the State of Israel by a member of the Royal Family.

The royals are merely the servants of the British government. Until now, the notoriously anti-Israel Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has refused to permit an official visit to Israel by a member of the Royal Family out of concern for Arab anger.

Whether it has now softened its stance or been overruled by Prime Minister Theresa May is unclear. The fact remains that Prince William will be visiting Yad Vashem, meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, looking at start-ups in Tel Aviv and at Arab/Israeli youth programs in Jaffa, and so on.

His trip is supposed to be resolutely apolitical. Fat chance! His own itinerary released by his Kensington Palace office has already raised eyebrows.

After visiting Jordan and Israel, it says he will spend time in “the Occupied Palestinian Territories” – the FCO’s term – within which he will be briefed on Jerusalem’s Old City and the Mount of Olives.

Worse still, according to some unofficial reports, part of his trip to the “Occupied Palestinian Territories” will include visits to the Western Wall and Temple Mount.

This appears to be an all-too political FCO insult. For it goes even further than Britain’s still-obdurate refusal to accept that any part of Jerusalem is within Israel. It implies that the Old City, the place at the very heart of the Jews’ ancient national kingdom and including the holiest sites in Judaism, instead rightfully belongs to the “Palestinians” and is illegitimately “occupied” by Israel.

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