Britain’s Prince Charles to Make First Official Visit to Israel, West Bank

Prince Charles, first in line to Britain’s throne, will make his first-ever official visit to Israel next month. At the invitation of President Reuven Rivlin, the Prince of Wales will participate in the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem on January 23, which will also be attended by the leaders of Germany, France and Russia, among others. In a statement provided to The Media Line, Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said: “The presence of the Prince of Wales at this significant event sends a decisive message that HRH Prince Charles believes firmly that antisemitism has no place in our post-Holocaust society, whether in the UK or elsewhere.” During his trip, Prince Charles is slated to meet with Rivlin but there is no word yet as to whether he will hold talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The British royal is also slated to visit the West Bank, where he will be greeted in Ramallah by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Prince Charles has twice made unofficial visits to Israel – to attend the 1995 and 2016 funerals of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and former president Shimon Peres, respectively. Last year, Prince William, Charles’s son and second in line to the throne, became the first member of the British monarchy to make an official visit to the Jewish state.