Britain’s Prince Charles wears his royal kippah at the funeral of the late Israeli President Shimon Peres. Photo: Twitter.

The former commander of British forces in Afghanistan has decried the alleged cancellation of an official visit to Israel by Prince Charles later this year – which would have marked the first official visit by a member of the royal family since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.

Col. Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told The Sun newspaper that the decision was an “insult to British war dead,” and accused the Foreign Office of being behind the decision. During the visit, Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, had been set to honor the 16,000 British and Commonwealth dead during the centenary of the World War 1 Palestine Campaign, as well as the 1917 Balfour Declaration in which the British declared their support for a “Jewish national home.”

Kemp, a vocal supporter of Israel, slammed the Foreign Office as a “camel corps” who were “pandering” to Arab dictators.

According to The Sun, the decision was made by the Royal Visits Committee – part of the Foreign Office – and there is no suggestion that Prince Charles himself was involved in the cancellation.

The idea of a Royal state visit first surfaced after Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli President, extended an invitation via British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson at a meeting in Jerusalem earlier this year.