William Mountbatten-Windsor

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge   (Royalty)
Born	William Arthur Philip Louis Mountbatten-Windsor 1982-06-21 St Mary's Hospital, London
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of St Andrews
Parents	• Charles Mountbatten-Windsor‎ • Diana Spencer
Spouse	Catherine Middleton
Member of	British royal family

Prince William Mountbatten-Windsor is a member of the British royal family. He is the elder son of Prince Charles, and Diana, Princess of Wales, and is second in line of succession to the British throne, after his father.

Background

William was educated at four schools in the United Kingdom and obtained a degree from the University of St Andrews. He spent parts of a gap year in Chile, Belize, and some parts of Africa.

Military service

In December 2006, Prince William completed 44 weeks of training as an officer cadet and was commissioned in the Blues and Royals regiment. In April 2008, he qualified as a pilot by completing pilot training at Royal Air Force College, Cranwell. He then underwent helicopter flying training in order to become a full-time pilot with the RAF Search and Rescue Force in early 2009. His service with the British Armed Forces ended in September 2013.

Visit to Middle East

On 1 March 2018, Kensington Palace announced that Prince William will visit Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the Summer. Overseas royal visits are made at the request of the British government. No British royal has ever made an official visit to Israel, whose occupation of the Palestinian territories the UK considers illegal. William's father Prince Charles attended the 2016 funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres in a private capacity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:

"This is a historic visit, the first of its kind. William will be received here with great affection."

Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee Member Dr Hanan Ashrawi released a statement saying:

“On behalf of the PLO Executive Committee and the Palestinian people, we welcome His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge on his scheduled visit to Palestine this Summer.”

Cancellation petition

On 2 April 2018, a petition was created on Change.org calling for the cancellation of Prince William's visit to Israel:

"There has been widespread condemnation of Israel's deadly attacks on Palestinians - the latest being on 30 March 2018, when 16 people were killed and more than 750 wounded by Israeli fire as thousands of Palestinian protesters marched to Gaza’s border with Israel.

"Among the many previous incidents were the 2001 Israeli Nerve Gas Attacks on Palestinian civilian populations in both Gaza and the West Bank. The symptoms reported matched those of tabun, a known anticholinesterase poison belonging to a family of organophosphate nerve agents. There have been many other reports of chemical warfare practised on the Palestinians dating as far back as 1983.

"Because Israel has rejected calls by the UN Secretary-General and the EU's foreign affairs chief for "an independent and transparent investigation" into the latest deadly attack, we demand that the British government show its revulsion and cancel Prince William's visit to Israel this summer."

Israel

On 27 May 2018, the Observer reported that while the Duke of Cambridge was preparing for his five-day trip beginning on Sunday 24 June 2018 in Amman, Jordan, and taking in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority’s capital city, and ending in Jerusalem, British defence contractors are selling record amounts of arms to Israel. Licences issued to UK defence contractors exporting to Israel in 2017 included those for targeting equipment, small arms ammunition, missiles, weapon sights and sniper rifles. Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade said:

“The shootings we have seen over recent weeks have been an awful reminder of the appalling collective punishment and oppression that has been inflicted on the people of Gaza. By the government’s own admission, UK arms have been used time and again against Palestinians. Yet the arms sales have continued unabated. There must be a full investigation into if any UK arms have been used in the atrocities we have seen over recent months.”

Human rights groups have questioned the wisdom of sending a senior royal to a country whose use of lethal force in the past month has been the subject of concern from the UK government:

“After the appallingly excessive response of the Israeli security forces at the Gaza border, tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories are likely to be close to boiling point when Prince William makes this historic visit,” said Kerry Moscogiuri, Amnesty International UK’s campaigns director.

“When he’s in Ramallah, we’d like to see Prince William going beyond the usual royal meet-and-greet by spending time talking with some of the Palestinian communities who’ve been affected by Israel’s 51-year occupation. Like everyone in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, people in Ramallah have endured years of discriminatory restrictions on their movement, with roadblocks, militarised checkpoints and off-limit roads which are for the exclusive use of those in the illegal Israeli settlements.”

Opinions

In April 2019, having spent a week in each agency MI6, MI5 and GCHQ, Prince William was effusive:

"Spending time inside our security and intelligence agencies, understanding more about the vital contribution they make to our national security, was a truly humbling experience.

"These agencies are full of people from everyday backgrounds doing the most extraordinary work to keep us safe. They work in secret, often not even able to tell family and friends about the work they do or stresses they face.

"They are driven by an unrivalled patriotism and dedication to upholding the values of this country. We all owe them deep gratitude for the difficult and dangerous work they do."

Family

Prince William married Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey. Hours before the wedding, he was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, and Baron Carrickfergus.

The couple have three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, who are third, fourth and fifth in line to the throne. The official residence of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is Kensington Palace, where their household office is also based.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:UK Government Should Cancel Prince William’s Visit to Apartheid Israel	Article	18 April 2018	BDS National Committee (BNC)	UK Government Should Cancel Prince William’s Visit to Apartheid Israel
Document:Whitehall Farce	book review	12 October 1989	Paul Foot	James Rusbridger: "Secrecy turns otherwise rational people into fascistic nutters; secrecy allows untold billions of pounds and endless energies to be wasted in unnecessary intelligence; secrecy pollutes the political process, muzzles what is left of the independent press and makes a mockery of Parliament and elections."

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References

This page imported content from Wikipedia on 4 March 2018.
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