Prince Charles arrives in Israel on first official visit

The UK's Prince Charles met with Israel's President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday ahead of the largest-ever Holocaust commemoration in Jerusalem.

Prince Charles is the latest dignitary to arrive in Israel for the event, taking place on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp and International Holocaust Memorial day on Sunday.

More than 40 world leaders and dignitaries are attending the event at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial which will commemorate those killed in the Holocaust, as well as highlighting the recent spikes in anti-Semitism worldwide.

Also expected to attend are French President Emmanuel Macron, Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Vice President Mike Pence, and the presidents of Germany, Italy and Austria.

The three-hour-long ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial - called "Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism" - looks to project a united front in commemorating the genocide of European Jewry amid a global spike in anti-Jewish violence in the continent and around the world.

But the unresolved remnants of the Second World War's politics have permeated the solemn assembly over the differing historical narratives of various players.

Poland's president, who's been criticised for his own wartime revisionism, has boycotted the gathering since he wasn't invited to speak.

Russia President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, was granted a central role even as he leads a campaign to play down the Soviet Union's pre-war pact with the Nazis and shift responsibility for the war's outbreak on Poland, which was invaded in 1939 to start the fighting.

Royal tour

Prince Charles met with Rivlin at the Israeli president's Jerusalem residence, where he told Charles that Israel "deeply appreciates" his attendance at the memorial event.

"It starts with the Jewish people but we never know where it ends. Everyone needs to be very careful," Rivlin told the British royal, according to the Press Association.

"We are still expecting your mother to come," Rivlin added.

Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, is making his first official tour of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, and is the most senior royal to have visited

On Friday he will travel to Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, where he will be received by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

During his tour, he will carry out engagements which reflect "Bethlehem's historic religious significance", Clarence House said last week.