+ A
A -
Reuters
JERUSALEM
Britain's Prince William toured Jerusalem's most sacred and sensitive sites on Thursday, wrapping up a politically delicate visit that both Palestinians and Israelis, locked in a lengthy conflict, were able to embrace.
Assuring Palestinians they had not been forgotten and ending what Israelis had seen as an undeclared British boycott of official visits to their country by the royal family, William made no evident missteps in following an itinerary carefully scripted for balance.
Billed as non-political, the four-day tour of Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories was an opportunity to show goodwill and voice hopes for peace in areas Britain ruled from 1917 to 1948, the year of Israel's creation.
Embarking on a visit of Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy places in Jerusalem, William shook hands with clerics and then entered Islam's Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque.
They are on a site revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount, where Biblical temples once stood.
Minutes later, accompanied by Jewish rabbis, William approached the Western Wall, at the foot of the sacred hilltop, through a passage formed by police barricades that held back a crowd of onlookers.
Wearing a skullcap and following a Jewish tradition of offering a written prayer at the wall, he placed a note between its stones, rested the palm of one hand against them and leaned forward in silent reflection.
Separately, he wrote in the Western Wall's official guest book:"May the God of peace bless this region and all the world with peace."
William then visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, another popular stop for pilgrims and where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried.
The holy sites he toured are in East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move that has not won international recognition. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they seek in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
William's trip, undertaken at the behest of the British government, was the first official visit by a senior member of Britain's royal family to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
