PRINCE WILLIAM PAUSES DURING A VISIT TO THE HALL OF REMEMBRANCE AT JERUSALEM’S YAD VASHEM HOLOCAUST MUSEUM, DURING HIS MIDEAST TOUR TUESDAY.
William meets president, tours Holocaust centre
•PrinceWilliam was thrust into the politics of the Middle East Tuesday when he was asked by Israel to become a “prince for peace.”
While the prince’s trip — he is the first member of the British royal family to pay an official visit to Israel — is being billed as non-political, he is meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
During a meeting, Reuven Rivlin, the president of Israel, described the Duke of Cambridge as a “prince and a pilgrim.”
Rivlin then delivered what appeared to be a careful but deliberate statement about tensions in the region.
“I know that you are going to meet President Abbas,” he said, referring to the leader of the Palestinian Authority. “I would like you to send him a message of peace. And tell him it is about time that we have to find together a way to build confidence.
“To build confidence as a first step to bring an understanding, to bring an end to the tragedy between us that goes along for more than 120 years.”
He added, “You are writing a new page in history. Because we’ve had a lot of kings and princes that came to Jerusalem during the history of Jerusalem, which is three or four thousand years, and you are the first one to come not only as a prince but also as a pilgrim.”
William replied, “I very much hope that peace in the area can be achieved.”
The prince began his visit to Israel on Tuesday with an emotional tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, where he met with two survivors who escaped Nazi Germany for the safety of Great Britain.
Henry Foner, who was fostered by a Jewish family in Swansea, Wales, and later served overseas for the British Army, said it was like a fairy tale for a refugee child like himself to meet a member of the Royal Family eight decades after the country rescued him.
The prince noted with pride that his great-grandmother had been recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations, the highest honour Israel grants to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Princess Alice hid three members of the Cohen family in her palace in Athens during the Nazi occupation of Greece in the Second World War. Thanks to her efforts, the Cohen family survived and today lives in France.
The princess died in 1969, and in 1988 her remains were brought to Jerusalem. Prince William plans to visit her gravesite later in the week as part of his tour of Jerusalem landmarks.