Prince William tours Jerusalem to finish trip
Visit to relative’s grave, Western Wall included
JERUSALEM — Prince William toured sensitive Jerusalem holy sites Thursday and paid a pilgrimage to the tomb of his great-grandmother on the final day of his historic royal visit to the Middle East.
The Duke of Cambridge’s Jerusalem leg was by far the most charged of his five-day tour of Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories — the first official visit of a member of the British royal family — as he ventured into the heart of world religion and regional politics.
The trip has been carefully orchestrated as a nonpolitical event, and the prince has been watchful in his words and actions not to stoke controversy as he met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and toured the region’s various locales. But the Jerusalem sites he visited are central to the century-old conflict, and every step he took was closely scrutinized.
Prince William began his visit with a lookout of the Old City from the Mount of Olives in east Jerusalem. He then visited the nearby gravesite of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice, who saved Jews in the Holocaust and whose last wishes were to have her remains buried in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene above the Garden of Gethsemane.
The prince stood solemnly by his great-grandmother’s grave, accompanied by a Russian Orthodox clergyman. He was then given several gifts by the clergy, including a bouquet of flowers and a cross. With the homage, William followed in the footsteps of his father Charles, the Prince of Wales, and grandfather Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had also visited Princess Alice’s grave.
From the church, Prince William was taken to visit a trio of key Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites before returning home to London. Prince William said he was particularly looking forward to the Old City visit, which included stops at the contested holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, the Western Wall, the holiest place where Jews can pray, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where tradition holds that Jesus was crucified and buried.
At the Western Wall, donning a black skullcap, he placed his right hand on the ancient stones and then, following tradition, slipped a note inside its cracks.
He signed the guestbook with the following passage: “May the God of peace bless this region and all the world with peace.”