Prince to visit Israel and occupied territories

THE Prince of Wales is to visit Israel and the occupied territories in January to carry out a series of official engagements for the first time, Clarence House has announced.

The Prince, who has twice visited Israel to attend the funerals of statesmen, has been invited by Reuven Rivlin, the country’s president, to join delegates at the World Holocaust Forum on Jan 23.

The Duchess of Cornwall will also attend a Holocaust event when she travels to Poland to join commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-birkenau, the former Nazi concentration camp.

She will attend a service at the site on Jan 27, which marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The engagements were announced two weeks after the Prince paid tribute to the Jewish community at a preChanukkah reception at Buckingham Palace, describing his sadness that its history in Britain had “often been shadowed by persecution”.

Clarence House said in a statement: “The World Holocaust Forum will be held at Yad Vashem … in Jerusalem, and will commemorate the 75th

Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-birkenau.

“At the invitation of Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, the prince will also visit the Occupied Palestinian Territories where His Royal Highness will also undertake engagements on behalf of the British Government.”

Yesterday, the Prince denounced the Easter suicide bombings in Sri Lanka as an “utterly barbaric attack”, as he attended a Tamil Christian church service in east London.

He said the attacks in April, in which more than 250 people died, were “an assault on religious freedom”.