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Prince William meets Palestinian President in first West Bank visit by royal

Prince William meets with the Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Prince William meets with the Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Photo: Getty

Prince William has paid the first official British royal visit to the Palestinian Territories, touring a refugee camp and telling Palestinians “you have not been forgotten.”

It was one of the most politically sensitive visits yet undertaken by the prince, on a day which took him from the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv to the hilltop offices of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank.

William, second in line to the British throne, received red-carpet treatment as he inspected an honour guard at the Muqata, Abbas’s headquarters.

“My sentiments are the same as yours in hoping that there is a lasting peace in the region,” the prince told Mr Abbas.

Later, at a speech at the residence of the British Consul-General in Jerusalem, he told a gathering of Palestinian civil society, business and religious leaders: “My message tonight is that you have not been forgotten. It has been a very powerful experience to meet you and other Palestinians living in the West Bank, and to hear your stories.”

He added: “I hope that through my being here and understanding the challenges you face, the links of friendship and mutual respect between the Palestinian and British people will grow stronger.”

After his meeting with Abbas, the Prince drove to Jalazone refugee camp to visit a health centre and a school, both run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Prince William

Prince William meets a group of young Palestinian football players. Photo: Getty

More than 9000 Palestinian refugees live in Jalazone, a crowded cluster of cinder block and concrete buildings that borders a large Israeli settlement.

Security was tight along the route, with armed Palestinian security men along the road, and standing on rooftops.

The prince watched as babies received checkups and vaccinations. The mood inside the clinic was upbeat, and the prince was cheered and applauded as he left.

But one Palestinian outside the clinic voiced anger at the legacy of Britain’s colonial-era involvement in the Holy Land, which ended in 1948.

The prince encountered no such negative sentiments at his next engagement, a meeting with pupils at an UNRWA girls school in the camp.

They sat in a semicircle around the prince, who asked questions through a translator.

Layan Wissam, 14, said she was happy the prince visited, “because he used his time to sit with us and listen to us. We sat with an important figure.”

After the camp, William went to the centre of Ramallah where he watched a Palestinian dance troupe and listened to a young man sing a song Ya WataniOh My Homeland – made popular by the Lebanese singer Fairouz, later saying that the singing and dancing “were by turns beautiful, moving and joyful.”

Prince William

Prince William visited a clinic operated by the UNRWA at the Al-Jalazoun refugee camp. Photo: Getty

He also tasted traditional local dishes such as falafel, shwarma and kanafeh and kicked a football with local boys and girls, receiving soccer shirts bearing the names of his children.

Until now it had been British policy not to make an official royal visit to Israel and the occupied territories until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was resolved.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in 2014 and the divide between the two sides has widened in the years since amid bouts of violence.

In his public remarks at the meeting with William, Abbas said: “The Palestinian side is committed to the peace process with the Israelis, so both states could live peacefully together within the borders of 1967.”

The West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self-rule, has been largely quiet in recent months, in contrast to surges of fighting along Israel’s frontier with Gaza, an enclave ruled by Abbas’s main Palestinian rival, the Hamas Islamist group.

William’s four-day tour, which ends on Thursday with a visit to holy sites, also marks the first time a member of the British royal family has paid an official visit to Israel.

-AAP

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