When the UK government sends a member of the royal family to any region in the world it is crucial their visit supports the principles of respect for human rights.
It is, therefore, important that any visit by Prince William is not used to normalise Israel’s illegitimate occupation, apartheid policies, continued violations of international law, and denial of Palestinian human rights. We hope and expect that in his visit to Palestine he will spend time meeting Palestinians like Issa Amro, who faces imprisonment for his non-violent protest at Israel’s imposition of an apartheid system of segregation and military control in his home town of Hebron, where whole streets are rendered off limits to Palestinians; like Ahed Tamimi, 17 years old and facing years of imprisonment for slapping an Israeli soldier who was attempting to enter her family property unlawfully. We hope too that he will spend time meeting Palestinian citizens of Israel who are denied the right of full equality under a legal system that discriminates based on ethnicity. In the year when Palestinians mark the 70th year since the Nakba, the catastrophe that befell them in 1948 when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes, he might wish to meet with Israeli and Palestinian NGO’s prevented under Israel’s ‘Nakba law’ from marking the Nakba with a day of mourning.
If Prince William’s visit is in any way to further the cause of peace it must be used to bring attention to these injustices and to the urgent need for action from the UK government to place meaningful pressure on Israel to end 70 years of oppression.