Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu invited Prince Charles to visit Israel when they met at the Paris conference last month, but the British nobility continues 67 years of a Royal snub to Israel, even before the “occupation”
The London Telegraph noted that Prince Charles last February visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The newspaper quoted one Israeli official as saying:
We’re the only democracy in the Middle East and so you ask why do the Royals go to the Arab dictatorships around us but they don’t come here?
British royalty, including Prince Charles have paid personal visits to Israel but never on an official basis since the re-establishment of the country.
Israel has recognized Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of the Duke of Edinburgh and who is buried in the Mount of Olives, as one of the Righteous Among Nations” for saving a Greek Jewish family from the Nazis. Prince Phillip visited her grave 19 years ago in what the royalty took pains to term a private visit.
Queen Elizabeth told the Israeli ambassador to London 18 years she would be happy to come to Israel, but no action followed the words.
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace told the Telegraph, “All overseas visits by members of the Royal family are undertaken on the advice of the British Government.”
One source explained:
Until there is a settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Royal family can’t really go there.
That does not explain why the British monarchy never visited Israel between 1949 and 1967.