Sept 07/2007
By Haaretz Editorial
Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II, is visiting Israel this week as the guest of a Jewish-Arab youth organization. But, like previous visits by the royal family here, this one was also defined as 'private.' The 43-year-old prince met with neither the president nor the prime minister. In the 21st century, there is no diplomatic significance to royal visits, and princes do not negotiate on behalf of their governments. But there is symbolic importance in showing respect for the host country. That is certainly the case when it comes to Britain, an important power and the largest surviving kingdom. Britain played a decisive historic role in the Middle East in general and in Zionism in particular, and wants to take the lead in bringing about a solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Its former prime minister, Tony Blair, now represents the international community in its efforts to establish a Palestinian state.
Israel is soon to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its independence, which followed the end of the British Mandate. But despite the passage of so much time, successive British governments have insisted on according Israel a lower status than that of its neighbors in the region and have refused to approve royal visits here. Queen Elizabeth, who came to the throne 55 years ago and has since visited 129 nations, has yet to visit Israel. The crown prince, Charles, took part in prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's funeral a dozen years ago, but according to the rules of protocol, attendance at a state funeral is not considered a state visit. The queen has hosted Israeli presidents at Buckingham Palace, but has not reciprocated their visits.
Britain's explanation for this lack of royal visits recalls Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's longstanding evasion of a visit to Israel. The unofficial message is that Israel will enjoy normalization of its international status only when peace comes to the region. Lord Greville Janner, a leader of the British Jewish community, has said that a royal visit would be politically controversial. It seems that his remark is an expression of the British government's increasing fear of angering its large Muslim community.
In recent years, British officials and organizations have stood at the forefront of the struggle to tarnish Israel's legitimacy. It was from Britain that the calls for an academic boycott of Israeli universities and scholars emerged. And it was there that arrest orders were issued against senior officers over alleged war crimes in the territories. A parliamentary committee issued a grave report last year on the spread of anti-Semitism in Britain.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said when he took office that his country stood alongside Israel in good times as in bad. But that is not enough. When the very legitimacy of the Jewish state is being increasingly undermined, the British government can and should demonstrate that it sees Israel as a country like all others, deserving of respect and even royal visits. This would grant important encouragement to Israelis who support the peace process and a compromise with the Arabs, and who seek to strengthen their country's international standing
