Prince William heads to West Bank for meetings with Abbas, Palestinians

Britain’s visiting Prince William heads to Ramallah on Wednesday to visit the Palestinian Authority, after touring Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and meeting Israeli leaders on Monday and Tuesday.

William, the second in line to the British throne, is scheduled to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at his Muqata headquarters. He is also expected to meet with Palestinian refugees and young people and to participate in events celebrating Palestinian culture, music and food.

On Tuesday Israeli President Reuven Rivlin asked William to convey to Abbas a “a message of peace.”

Hosting the Duke of Cambridge in his official Jerusalem residence, Rivlin said the Palestinians need to accept that Jews have returned to their ancestral homeland and that it was about time Israelis and Palestinians end their conflict.

Prince William — the first member of the British royal family to make an official visit to Israel since the state was founded in 1948 — also expressed the hope for peace in the Middle East.

Before traveling to the West Bank, William will attend an as-yet-unspecified “cultural event” in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning and meet with young Israelis at the city’s Beit Ha’ir Museum. He is also set to meet with Israel’s Eurovision Song Contest winner Netta Barzilai.

On Tuesday evening William hailed Israel as a vibrant country that “thrives on innovation, diversity, talent, and excellence,” and said ties were at an all-time high.

He promised Britain’s support in the quest for peace between Israel and its neighbors.

“I know I share a desire with all of you, and with your neighbors, for a just and lasting peace. The United Kingdom stands with you, as we work together for a peaceful and prosperous future,” he said at an event at the home of the British ambassador in Ramat Gan.

He also held a series of private conversations at the gathering with about a dozen Israelis from all walks of life, including singers Shiri Maimon and Ivri Lider, opposition politicians Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog, Ben-Gurion University President Rivka Carmi, model Bar Refaeli, Channel 10 news anchorwoman Tamar Ish Shalom, and Saul Singer, the co-author of a successful book about how Israel became known as the “Start-up Nation.”

Earlier on his whirlwind visit, William on Tuesday morning toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the afternoon he visited Tel Aviv and participated in a soccer match of Jewish and Arab youth and a beach volleyball game.

On Thursday, the duke is to tour Jerusalem’s Old City, where he is expected to visit the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Al-Aqsa Mosque, though these visits have not been officially confirmed. He will also go to the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene to visit the grave of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice.

Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.