UK government said to cancel Prince Charles visit to Israel

A historic planned visit to Israel by Prince Charles reportedly scheduled for later this year has been canceled by the British Foreign Office out of fears an official visit would anger the UK’s Arab allies, the UK tabloid The Sun reports.

According to the report, the heir to the British throne will not visit Israel in the fall of 2017 for a trip that was planned to coincide with the 100-year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.

Though never officially confirmed by London or Jerusalem, a senior British Jewish community leader told The Times of Israel last November that plans were underway for a representative of the Crown to visit Israel in the first-ever official visit by a member of the royal family.

Britain’s Prince Charles attends the funeral of former Israeli president and prime minister Shimon Peres at the Mount Herzl national cemetery in Jerusalem on September 30, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / POOL / ABIR SULTAN)

In March, President Reuven Rivlin publicly extended an invitation to the prince to visit during the centennial year since the 1917 signing of the Balfour Declaration during a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. But according to The Sun, the Royal Visits Committee, the branch of the Foreign Office that coordinates trips on behalf of the Royals, nixed the visit in an apparent effort to “to avoid upsetting Arab nations in the region who regularly host UK Royals.”

The report said Rivlin’s invitation never reached the office of Prince Charles.