Prince William has begun the first official visit by a British royal to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, facing the challenge of navigating deep political and religious divides in a Holy Land once ruled by Britain.
William, 36, will see religious sites, honour Holocaust victims, and meet Jewish and Arab youths, as well as Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
A spokesman for the prince, acknowledging the “well-known” and “complex challenges” in the Middle East, said his tour, like other visits abroad by members of the British royal family, will be non-political.
For William – who is travelling solo because his wife Kate, 36, is still on maternity leave after the April birth of Prince Louis – the trip is the most diplomatically sensitive he’s ever tackled.
And according to the Telegraph, he was “faced with settling a debate that has raged for decades” as soon as he arrived at his five-star hotel, the King David Jerusalem.
Read the article in The New Daily (with Reuters).