BICOM

Prince William arrived in Israel yesterday afternoon on the first official Royal visit since Israel was established in 1948.

The Duke of Cambridge was welcomed to Israel at Ben-Gurion airport by Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, British ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey and the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev.

Prince William will begin his first day in Israel at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre where he will visit the museum and lay a wreath to commemorate the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust. William will also meet Paul Alexander and Henry Foner, who escaped from Nazi Germany in the Kindertransport, a British initiative to rescue 10,000 Jewish children who were evacuated to Britain before World War two began.

Prince William will then meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife at their official residence on Jerusalem’s Balfour Street, named after the former UK Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur Balfour who signed the Balfour Declaration in 1917 announcing the British Government’s support for the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

The Duke’s next stop will be a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin before he travels to the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Jaffa. The Prince will attend a football match at the Neve Golan Stadium and meet young people involved in the work of two charities, the Equaliser and the Peres Centre for Peace, which are focused on peace-buidling and co-existence through football and sport between young people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds.

After the match, Prince William will attend another event in central Tel Aviv with Mayor Ron Huldai. Israeli media have reported that he will visit Frishman beach to watch a beach volleyball match. In the evening, the Duke will give a speech at a reception at the residence of the British Ambassador to Israel. Netanyahu will also attend.

Before the visit Quarrey said: “It is the right moment for a visit to really shine a light on that relationship and show how strong the contemporary relationship is between the two countries. The Duke is very clear that he wants to come and get under the skin of the country, he wants to get a feel for Israel. He wants to get a flavour of the country.”