Prince Charles visits his grandmother’s grave on Mt. of Olives, Jerusalem

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, after attending the funeral of Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, took advantage of his trip to the Holy Land to visit the tomb of his grandmother, Princess Alice of of Battenburg, mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She is buried at the Russian Orthodox church of St. Mary Magdanele convent on the Mount of Olives. Princess Allice sheltered Jews in World War Two and was later honored as one of the “righteous among nations” by the Holocaust Memorial foundation. The Mount of Olives, site of the biblical Jewish graveyard, is also the resting-place of many non-Jews. Princess Alice is one of the most famous.

The prince’s visit treads on politically sensitive ground given the English royal family’s consistent avoidance of formal visits to the state of Israel. Their rare trips were always termed private. He came to the Peres funeral, however, attended by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. It is particularly interesting that Charles accessed a location in East Jerusalem which the UK has never recognized as part of Israel.