Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, will meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin during his five-day visit to the region that will also take place in Jordan and the Palestinian Authority from Sunday June 24 until Thursday June 28.
Prince William, making his first visit to the region, and the first ever official visit by a member of the British royal family to Israel, will arrive at Ben Gurion Airport on June 25, after two days in Jordan, before travelling to the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, where he will stay for the remainder of his trip.
On the morning of the 26th, Prince William will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center where he will meet with a Holocaust survivor and a veteran of the Kindertransport [that brought Jewish children from Europe to the United Kingdom shortly before World War II] who will share their personal experiences with him, before laying a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance.
Following his visit to Yad Vashem, the Prince will be hosted by Prime Minister Netanyahu and following that will meet with President Rivlin at his residence.
Later in the day, the Prince will travel to Jaffa to meet with with young people involved in co-existence work between Jews and Arabs and will attend a soccer match organized by the Peres Centre for Peace and the Equaliser, an organization that works with youths in disadvantaged communities.
Prince William will then attend an event in Tel Aviv that will be announced during the visit, before speaking at a reception at the British Ambassador’s residence in Ramat Gan and then heading back to Jerusalem.
The Prince returns to Tel Aviv on the following morning, where he will have another yet to be announced engagement, before attending a tech demo at the Beit Ha’ir Museum where he will meet four start-up companies and hear the stories behind their products. The Duke will then attend a civil society reception, meeting groups of young people engaged in the fields of youth activism, social impact and the environment.
In the afternoon, the Duke will travel to Ramallah, in what Kensington Palace labelled “the Occupied Palestinian Territories” for a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and meetings with young Palestinian Authority Aravs. In the evening, he will give a speech at the Consul General in Jerusalem.
The next day’s programme will include a briefing on on the history and geography of Jerusalem’s Old City from a viewing point at the Mount of Olives, which Kensington Palace also listed as being in “the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” From the Mount of Olives, Prince William will make the short trip to the Church of St Mary Magdalene where he will pay his respects at the tomb of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice.
Plans for the rest of the day have yet to be announced, but Kensington Palace said they would “allow His Royal Highness to understand and pay respect to the religions and history of the region.”
