National Post (National Edition)
U.K. ‘stands with you’, William tells Palestinians
Met Abbas on first royal visit to territories
JERUSALEM• Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, has delivered amessage of hope to Palestinians, telling them that they have not been forgotten and that the “U.K. stands with you.”
William, who spent time in the Palestinian Territories Wednesday, called for “lasting peace for the region,” as he visited Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.
Saying hopes for peace and security were not “extravagant aspirations,” the Duke told guests at a garden party that he wished his visit to shine a light on the friendship between the Palestinian and British people.
“My message tonight is that you have not been forgotten,” he said.
“The United Kingdom stands with you, as we work together for a peaceful and prosperous future.”
William is the first member of the Royal family to visit the Palestinian Territories.
On Tuesday, he had been asked by Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli president, to deliver a “message of peace” to Abbas at their meeting, in an unexpected public intervention.
Abbas, in turn, told William of his “full commitment to achieving a full and lasting peace based on a twostate solution, where the state of Palestine lives side by side with the state of Israel with both supervising peace and security.”
William replied: “I’m very glad that our two countries work so closely together and have had success stor- ies with education and relief work in the past and long may that continue. My sentiments are the same as yours in hoping there is a lasting peace for the region, so thank you.”
William spoke at a party of how he had enjoyed learning more about Palestinian culture.
In Jalazone, opened after the 1948 Arab-israeli war, he visited refugees in concrete buildings, in an area of high unemployment and violent clashes between Palestinians and a neighbouring Israeli settlement.
P raising the region’ s young people, culture and food, the Duke said: “I am also struck by how many people in the region want a just and lasting peace.
“This is only too evident among the young people I have met, who long for a new chapter to be written in the history of this region — a chapter which will secure them a prosperous future and will ensure that their enormous talents can flourish. These are not extravagant aspirations, but the same aspirations of young people everywhere in the world.”
Amid talk of peace, meanwhile, more than 12 rockets were launched from Gaza toward southern Israeli communities, the Israeli military said. There were no fatalities or wounded in the attack.
The barrage came after Israeli aircraft targeted a vehicle belonging to a Hamas militant involved in launching incendiary kites that have sparked fires in recent weeks.
I AM ALSO STRUCK BY HOW MANY PEOPLE ... WANT A JUST AND LASTING PEACE.