PALESTINIANS SEE GLIMMER OF HOPE IN PRINCE WILLIAM’S MIDDLE EAST VISIT
▶ British royal’s itinerary avoids even implicit endorsement of Israeli occupation
Palestinians hope British Prince William’s Middle East trip will restore some balance to the Arab-Israeli equation after the US government’s embrace of Israel.
The prince’s five-day visit, which started in Jordan yesterday, came as the US government prepared to announce a Middle East peace plan favourable to Israel and unacceptable to the Palestinians.
Prince William, making the first official visit to the Holy Land by a member of the British royal family, is far from following Washington’s lead. His itinerary released by Kensington Palace refers to East Jerusalem as being part of the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
And the prince will not be meeting any representatives of the Israeli-run Jerusalem municipality, something Israel could have trumpeted as an endorsement of its illegal annexation of East Jerusalem.
“We look in a positive way to the aspect of how the prince is treating Jerusalem,” said Ghassan Khatib, vice president of Birzeit University near Ramallah and a former minister in the Palestinian government. “This adds to the significance of the visit.
“He is coming and he is making a balanced gesture vis-a-vis Jerusalem at a time when the US is taking a biased position towards the conflict and especially Jerusalem.”
Mr Khatib said the visit was a chance for the UK to redress injustices it inflicted on the Palestinians, such as enabling Jewish immigration under the Palestine mandate that lasted until 1948 and “siding with the Zionist movement against the Palestinians”.
The prince’s role has been described by the palace as “non-political”, but every step he takes will be scrutinised for signs about where he stands in relation to the conflict.
Tomorrow he meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and on Wednesday he will spend time with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Israel will try to project itself as a vibrant, open society while the Palestinians will tell what it is like to live under occupation.
“We hope this visit will lead to a greater understanding of the Palestinian reality and the nature of the oppression of the occupation, and the urgency of ending this extremely cruel and unjust situation,” said Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi, who will meet the prince.
“The aim is to reach out for greater understanding and more human, cultural and historic ties.
“We don’t expect it to be political, even if Israel tries to exploit it, because the royal family’s position has always been against the occupation and for the establishment of a just peace, and we are sure they will maintain this position.”
Kensington Palace said the prince’s schedule in the occupied West Bank will include “events that focus on the issues facing refugee communities, opportunities to celebrate Palestinian culture and a chance to meet young Palestinians”.
In Israel, his first stop will be the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum. He will also meet young activists promoting Jewish-Arab co-existence in Jaffa and watch a show of hightech innovation in Tel Aviv.
In East Jerusalem on Thursday, the prince will be briefed on the history and geography of the Old City from a vantage point on the Mount of Olives, and he will have a chance “to pay respect to the religions and history of the region”.
Israel captured East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank during the 1967 war and then annexed it in contravention of international law.
With the US embassy move, it hopes international opposition to the annexation is starting to crumble. So Britain’s stance now takes on heightened importance for Palestinians.
“What the royal family and the UK are doing is just acknowledging a fact of legality and of rights,” Ms Ashrawi said.
But Jerusalem’s deputy mayor Dov Kalmanovich was critical of the prince for not meeting municipality officials or the mayor, Nir Barkat, a supporter of Jewish settlement in Arab neighbourhoods of the city.
Mr Kalmanovich, from the hard-right Jewish Home party, said he was “very surprised that a personage from the royal family comes and can’t find the time to meet representatives of the municipality”.
“We very much like the prince, but he shouldn’t slip on politics,” he said.