Prince William To Make First Ever UK Royal Visit To Israel

Jerusalem, 1 March, 2018 (TPS) -- Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, will make the first ever official visit by a member of the British royal family to Israel, Kensington Palace said in a Twitter announcement on Thursday.

“The Duke of Cambridge will visit Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the Summer,” the palace Tweet said.

“The visit is at the request of Her Majesty’s Government and has been welcomed by the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian authorities,”

Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin welcomed the announcement and made no reference to the use of the term ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories.’

“We welcome the announcement of Prince William’s visit to Israel,” Netanyahu said. “It it a historic and a first of a kind visit and he will be warmly welcomed.”

Rivlin Tweeted: “Nechama & I were happy to hear @KensingtonRoyal announcement, and look forward to welcoming #PrinceWilliam, the Duke of Cambridge, on an official visit to the State of #Israel later this year. A very special guest, and a very special present for our 70th year of independence.”

While the visit will be the first official royal tour to Israel, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales and heir apparent to Queen Elizabeth II, came for Shimon Peres’s funeral in 2016 and for the funeral of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1994. However neither of those visits included diplomatic meetings and were not considered official royal visits. Prince Charles’ father, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, made a private visit in 1994 to the grave of his mother, Alice of Battenberg, who is buried on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives.

Prince William is second in line to the UK throne behind Prince Charles.