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PortuguesePrince Charles, who was set to become the first British Royal to carry out an official state visit to Israel, has reportedly canceled the trip.
Prince Charles, who was set to become the first British Royal to carry out an official state visit to the State of Israel since its establishment in 1948, has reportedly canceled the planned trip.
The British Sun reported Sunday that Foreign Office officials, seeking to avoid upsetting Arab nations in the region who regularly host UK Royals, canceled the visit.
Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, was set to travel to Israel in November to honor the 16,000 fallen British and Commonwealth World War One troops at the centenary of the British campaign to liberate the land from the Ottoman Empire and the historic Balfour Declaration.
Former Col. Richard Kemp, a prominent vocal supporter of Israel, slammed the Foreign Office as “camel corps” who were “pandering” to Arab dictators. A former commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan, he branded the decision an “insult to British war dead.”
“Since the creation of Israel in 1948, the Queen or Prince Charles visited Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya and Qatar,” Kemp wrote.
“The Foreign Office’s Camel Corps have sabotaged any chance of a visit to Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. Out of respect for our war dead, the Prime Minister must overturn this timid and mean-spirited ban,” he demanded.
The idea of a Royal state visit first surfaced after Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli president, extended an invitation via Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at a meeting in Jerusalem earlier this year. The Sun believes that the invitation never reached the Royal household or Prince Charles and that the Royal Visits Committee, which decides the Royals’ travel plans, decided against it.
In October, Prince Charles attended the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres and visited his grandmother’s grave in what was considered a private visit.
His paternal grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who saved a Jewish family during the Holocaust, is buried at the Mount of Olives’ Church of Mary Magdalene.
By: United with Israel Staff
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