Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority
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Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority A BICOM guide to the Royal tour printer, and the Royal Jordanian Jerash is an example of the HRH The Duke of Cambridge Air Academy designing a personal grand, formal provincial will visit Jordan, Israel and gadget that supports access to Roman urbanism that is found the Palestinian Authority (PA) working tools quickly, eliminating throughout the Middle East, from Sunday 24 June until the need to carry a large number comprising of paved and Thursday 28 June. of tools or a big toolbox. colonnaded streets, soaring This will be the first official hilltop temples, handsome Royal visit to Israel and theatres, spacious public the West Bank and Prince squares and plazas, baths, William’s first visit to the 25 June fountains and city walls with Middle East. towers and gates. The city is the second most The BICOM research team Jerash, north Jordan; has produced this briefing popular tourist destination to provide the context and Amman; Ben-Gurion in Jordan; 211,000 people history to each of the visits Airport, Israel visited in 2017. The Duchess on his schedule. of Cambridge visited Jerash as a child when her family lived Jerash, the Makani programme in Jordan. A photo of Kate supported by UNICEF Middleton and her family in Prince William will visit the Jerash was one of the photos ancient Roman city of Jerash, released prior to the Duke and 24 June approximately 50km north of Duchess’ marriage in 2011. Amman. Jerash is more than 6,500 The Makani (“My Space”) years old and considered one of the programme aims to expand Amman, Jordan largest and best preserved sites of learning opportunities for all Roman architecture in the world. children (5 to 18 years old) and Conquered by General Pompey in Fablab young people (up to 24 years 63 BC, the city came under Roman old) not accessing any form of Prince William’s first stop on rule and was one of the ten great education in Jordan. Makani his Middle East tour will be to Roman cities of the Decapolis centres have a holistic approach TechWorks, a digital fabrication League. The city was hidden in that provides vulnerable laboratory (FabLab) with a mission sand for centuries before being children and youth with learning to bring together youth, ideas and discovered in 1806 by a German opportunities, life skills training resources to unleash the power of traveller, Ulrich Jasper Seezten, and and psychosocial support Jordan’s innovation ecosystem. has been excavated and restored services under one roof. TechWorks is part of the Crown over the past 90 years. Prince Foundation Initiative’s (CPFI) flagship innovation platform Techworks to encourage technical education for the youth through providing the right tools, talent, resources and institutions, as well as a level- playing field on which to compete. The Prince will be given a tour by Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein. He will be introduced to some of Jordan’s most talented young entrepreneurs and their projects. Some notable achievements of the FabLab include a machine learning driverless car, redesigning old parts of vehicles by using the TechWorks 3D 1 Jerash IT equipment. Jordan received £32m in 2017 and £28m in 2017 from the UK Conflict Security and Stabilisation Fund to help its security. A report by the House of Commons Defence Committee on the UK’s military operations in Syria and Iraq for 2016-7 described the training provided by UK Short-Term Training Teams (STTTs) for the QRF as a “credible investment” and “morale-boosting” for both the UK and Jordanian side. The Princess Taghrid Institute (PTI) Quick Reaction Force (QRF) operations for several days. It The Princess Taghrid Institute Base is an important element in the (PTI) was founded by HRH containment of ISIS and other Princess Taghrid Mohammad, The Royal Jordanian Armed extremist forces along Jordan’s the wife of HRH Prince Forces’ QRF is a fully border with Iraq and Syria. Mohammad, the brother and operational brigade-strength personal representative of the force that was established The QRF has been on the late Jordanian King Hussein. to support Jordan’s existing frontline defending Jordan She is also the daughter of Special Forces units. The QRF’s against ISIS and receives direct former Jordanian Prime Minister task is to secure the area where UK financial support. In 2015, Hazzaa Majali. She founded the special forces need to the UK Government provided it the institute to provide skills operate and provide security for with a £2.5m package of non- training to women, particularly these units. This role requires lethal equipment including orphans and abandoned youth, the QRF to be the first force to transport vehicles, body in order that they may be arrive in the operational area armour, communications and able to help these individuals and the last to leave. It has to be on continuous alert for any deployment inside or outside Jordan. The QRF operates primarily along the borders and is meant to help sustain QRF 2 Princess Taghrid Institute graduated from the college with various local and international certificates including the British Higher Diploma. The college has a partnership with 42 UK universities and Princess Taghrid Institute colleges including University College Birmingham, Bath Spa University, University of obtain employment. They Founded in 1980, al-Quds Greenwich and University of bring together experts in arts College is a leading private Kent, as well as higher education and handicraft who will teach technical college that offers centres from the US, Australia, trainees with a specialised two-year diplomas in multiple Canada, the UAE, France and program. They also help areas of study, including: Malaysia. Among the students provide and facilitate jobs, medicine, engineering, finance, Prince William will meet will be coordinate with local NGOs hotel management and IT. The those who are enrolled in the and work within various local institution is privately owned media school, training in film communities in Jordan to by the Luminos Group, which and music production as part of reduce the stigma surrounding aims to provide education which the college’s partnership with orphans and abandoned youth. takes into consideration global Middlesex University. One area that Prince William developments and labour market will be interested in is the requirements in the Middle East. organisation’s goal to build More than 25,000 students have a cultural and artistic bridge between various countries of the world through professional exchange programmes that expose young people to the diverse arts and cultures of the world. The organisation has three departments: arts & handicraft, culinary arts and embroidery & fashion design. The organisation is located in Ghour Fefa, Irbid and Jerash. Al-Quds College, Amman Al-Quds College 3 Jordan Air Ambulance Centre The Jordan Air Ambulance Centre was founded by King Abdullah II in 2015. The centre seeks to provide specialised rescue services, patient transfer and air ambulance operations, especially for the transfer of patients from remote areas of the country. The centre is a paid-for service, although it has various schemes to make the service affordable and accessible to all patients. The fleet includes an AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter equipped with Jordan Air Ambulance advanced medical systems. The Centre’s board is chaired by Major of Egypt, and King Abdullah General Yousef Ahmad Alhuniti, Travel to Israel head of the Jordanian Air Force. I of Jordan. There were three The helicopters are operated by Heads of State, forced to flee their countries, who took up two pilots and two medical staff King David Hotel on any one journey. This visit is residence there: King Alfonso likely be tied to Prince William’s During his time in Israel, XIII of Spain, forced to abdicate previous service in the air rescue Prince William will stay at in 1931, Emperor Haile Selassie ambulance services of the Royal the King David hotel, one of of Ethiopia, driven out by the Air Force and the East Anglia the most iconic hotels in the Italians in 1936 and King George Air Ambulance Services. This region. Opened in 1931, it was II of Greece, who set up his will be an important visit for the built in the centre of the city Duke of Cambridge who only of Jerusalem on 4.5 acres of King David left the air ambulance service land by an Egyptian Jewish Hotel in 2017 and will likely highlight banker. It is located on King the historic ties between British David Street, overlooking the and Jordanian Armed Forces as Old City. From early on the well as future cooperation and King David Hotel hosted royalty, shared learning between both air including the widowed empress ambulance services. of Persia, Queen Mother Nazli King David Hotel 4 government in exile at the hotel after the Nazi occupation of his country in 1942. 26 June During the British Mandate, the southern wing of the hotel was turned into a British Jerusalem; Jaffa; Tel administrative and military Aviv headquarters. In 1946, the south- west corner was bombed by the Yad Vashem Irgun. 91 people died and 45 people were injured. Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance The design for the hotel Centre, is the internationally incorporates “eastern-style renowned resource for Holocaust domes, arches, various kinds education, documentation and “Righteous Among the Nations,” of different-coloured stone, and research. In 1953 the Knesset Yad Vashem interior decorations with religious (Israeli Parliament) established symbols and inscriptions,” in a it to commemorate “all those Yad Vashem has built a database building with a strict symmetry members of the Jewish people to record the identities of Jewish that evokes European planning. who gave their lives, or rose and holocaust victims of Nazism The public rooms are decorated fought against the Nazi enemy and has collected at least in motifs taken from Assyrian, and its collaborators”, to build “a 110,000 audio, video and written Hittite, Phoenician and Muslim memorial to them, and to their testimonies on behalf of non-Jews buildings in an effort to evoke a communities, organisations and who risked their lives to save “biblical” style.