Britain’s Prince William arrives in Israel for a historic royal visit

JERUSALEM — Prince William arrived in Israel on Monday for the first-ever official visit of a member of the British royal family to the tumultuous region London once ruled.

Arriving from Jordan, the Duke of Cambridge landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport and then went to Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, site of the former administrative headquarters of the British mandate.

Three decades of British rule between the two world wars helped establish some of the fault lines of today’s Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Britain’s withdrawal in 1948 led to the establishment of Israel and Jordan.

Britain has since taken a back seat to the United States in mediating peace efforts, and the royal family has mostly steered clear of the region’s toxic politics.

For the 36-year-old Prince William, second in line to the throne, it marks a highprofile visit that could brandish his international credentials.

Though the trip is being billed as non-political, and places a special emphasis on technology and joint Israeli-Arab projects, Prince William will also be meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and visiting landmark Jerusalem sites at the heart of the centuryold conflict.

Tuesday he visits Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, where he will meet two survivors who escaped Nazi Germany for the safety of Britain. The memorial recognizes Prince William’s great-grandmother, Princess Alice, as Righteous Among the Nations for her role in rescuing Jewsduring the Holocaust.

Later, Prince William will meet Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before heading to coastal Tel Aviv to attend a football game of young Jewish and Arab players. He’ll also meet the mayor of Tel Aviv and attend a reception the British ambassador is holding in his honor.

Later in the week, he’ll be traveling to the West Bank, where he will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah before wrapping up the trip in east Jerusalem to visit his greatgrandmother’s gravesite.

The itinerary angered Israeli politicians by mentioning Jerusalem as being part of “the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin called the reference a “distortion” that cannot “change reality.”