Pilgrimage to grandmother’s tomb a poignant moment for prince
It was a deeply personal moment amid the turbulence of the Holy City. Yesterday afternoon, at the end of his first official visit to Jerusalem, the Prince of Wales made a pilgrimage to his grandmother’s tomb on the Mount of Olives, where he laid flowers in memory of Princess Alice.
The Prince’s tribute to his grandmother, who is renowned for saving a Jewish family from the Nazis during the Holocaust while living in occupied Greece and died when he was 20, also provided an opportunity to inspect a new Greek royal standard covering her coffin.
During a private visit to the tomb in 2017, the Prince discovered the previous standard to be “moth-eaten and tatty”. According to a source close to the Prince. he remarked “we will do a bit better for granny” and promptly ordered a replacement.
Fr Roman Krassovsky, head of the Russian Orthodox Church of St Mary Magdalene, where Alice was buried as her final wish, said the Prince’s visit to his grandmother’s tomb was “the one leg of his trip that was personal”.
The Prince’s private prayers followed a morning in which he had become the most senior member of the Royal family to visit the occupied territories and delivered a strong message of support for the plight of the Palestinian people, declaring “it breaks my heart that we continue to see so much suffering and division”.
After crossing through an Israeli checkpoint and into the heart of the West Bank, the Prince addressed a crowd of civic leaders in Bethlehem. “It is my dearest wish that the future will bring freedom, justice and equality to all Palestinians,” he said.
In what is understood to be the clearest indication of support for the Palestinians ever given by a member of the Royal family, the Prince added: “No one arriving in Bethlehem today could miss the signs of continued hardship and the situation you face, and I can only join you, and all communities, in your prayers for a just and lasting peace.”
The Prince’s comments came just hours after US president Donald Trump invited Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to Washington next week ahead of what appears to be the release of his long-awaited Israelipalestinian peace plan.
No details of the plan have been officially released but reports claim it would overwhelmingly favour Israel, including giving it sovereignty over settlements in the occupied West Bank (something considered illegal by most of the international community).
After meeting Israeli political leaders on the first day of his tour yesterday, the Prince was hosted by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, at his official residence in Bethlehem. The pair exchanged warm words in which the Prince thanked Mr Abbas for his invitation to visit the occupied territories. “Having met people this morning, I am now even more aware of the issues you face,” he said.
The Prince made his speech earlier in the day at a Franciscan pilgrim house, where he spoke with civic leaders and Palestinian refugees. Among those he spoke to was Dr Abdelfattah Abu Srour, director of the Al Rowwad Centre in Aida camp, home to some 5,000 Palestinian refugees. After telling the Prince that he works with children as young as eight who have already given up on life, the Prince replied: “It is painful to hear that.”
The Prince also spoke with Dr Mai Kaileh, the Palestinian minister of health, who told him of her hope that the Palestinian people would one day live in an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. Citing the Balfour Declaration, announced by Britain in 1917, which called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, Dr Kaileh said: “The Israeli state was pronounced by Balfour, maybe his highness will pronounce Palestine as one in 2020?”
Before departing, the Prince was presented with a gift of a mural of his royal crest designed in mother of pearl by a local iconography artist.
The Prince’s arrival in Bethlehem was marked by swirling winds, flag-waving crowds, and a heavy security presence with snipers lining the rooftops and commandos patrolling the streets.
His first engagement on Palestinian land was to a mosque on Manger Square, where he heard how Christians and Muslims had lived peacefully alongside each other for centuries. The Omar mosque, which is the only mosque in the old city, even though Muslims outnumber Christians in Bethlehem, is named after the Caliph Omar, who conquered Jerusalem in 637 but guaranteed that Christians would be free to continue to worship. The message of religious coexistence was, said the Prince, “a wonderful example”. Amid a jostling
‘I can only join you in your prayers for a just and lasting peace’
crowd with cameras and security men, the Prince then joined Muslim and Christian leaders in a symbolic walk through the centre of Bethlehem towards the Church of the Nativity, in a gesture aimed at spreading a message of coexistence.
During a multifaith service at the church, the Most Rev Suheil Dawani, the Anglican Archbishop in Jerusalem, heralded the Prince’s decades-long quest to bring different faiths together, saying his “leadership and presence has given hope to all Christians, especially for those in our region who are suffering extreme oppression, violence and imprisonment”.
The Prince was shown the manger below the church where Christians believe Jesus was born.
Prior to visiting his grandmother’s tomb, the Prince visited an ancient olive grove, where he planted a tree. He declared: “I hope it will be a blessed tree.” Vivien Sansour, his guide, urged him to name his tree and offered a fitting suggestion: “Alice.”