Britain's Prince William will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas when he makes a landmark trip to the region later this month, his office said on Monday.
William, Queen Elizabeth's grandson and second-in-line to the British throne, will be the first senior British royal to pay an official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
While the trip is at the behest of the British government, the prince's Communications Secretary Jason Knauf said such a visit had been discussed for years.
"Now is the appropriate time and the Duke of Cambridge is the right person to make this visit," Knauf told reporters, referring to William by his title.
He said the prince was looking forward to building "a real and enduring relationship with the people of the region."
"The non-political nature of his royal highness' role – in common with all royal visits overseas – allows a spotlight to be brought to bear on the people of the region," Knauf said.
The U.K. regards Israel as a close and important ally, but the visit comes at a time when the two countries have been at odds over a number of major issues recently.
British Prime Minister Theresa May told Netanyahu ahead of a meeting in London last week that the U.K. was concerned over the Palestinian deaths in clashes in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has also lauded U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, both moves with which Britain disagrees.
Knauf said William would meet Netanyahu at the Prime Minister's Residence before seeing Abbas at his office in Ramallah the following day. Both leaders have welcomed the visit.
The prince will be making the trip without his wife, Kate, who will remain in Britain with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, who was born in April. William will be accompanied by his senior adviser, David Manning, a former ambassador to Israel.
During the four-day tour, the prince will go with Britain's Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial and museum, and will view Jerusalem's Old City from the Mount of Olives.
He will also visit the Church of St. Mary Magdalene and pay his respects at the tomb of his great-grandmother Princess Alice in the Garden of Gethsemane. Both his father, Prince Charles, and grandfather Prince Philip have visited the tomb previously during private trips.
William will begin the trip in Jordan, where his wife and her family lived for two years when she was a young child, and will pay a visit to the archaeological site of Jerash where Kate was pictured in Middleton family photos released at the time of their 2011 marriage.
