Prince William, on his first official royal visit to the Holy Land, says he will commit to helping his generation remember what happened during the Holocaust.
Prince William has envisaged a strong future for Israel while making the first official royal visit to the country and has pledged to commemorate the Holocaust that contributed to its foundation.
Speaking at a reception in his honour at the residence of the British Ambassador to Israel, William said his visit earlier to Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem had been a "profoundly moving experience".
He told dignitaries including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that as older generations were fading away, it was up to him and other younger people to carry on the commemoration of the Holocaust.
"I am well aware that the responsibility falls now to my generation to keep the memory alive of that great crime as the Holocaust generation passes on. And I commit myself to doing this," he said.
After a brief opening greeting in Hebrew, William added: "Israel's remarkable story is partly one of remembering its terrible past but also looking forward to a much more hopeful future. The modern story is one of inventing, creating, innovating and striding confidently into its future."
Earlier in Jerusalem, he met Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. On Wednesday he will meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Following his engagements in Jerusalem, William went to Tel Aviv and, sporting sunglasses and an open-necked shirt, strolled along the Mediterranean shore, chatting with beach-goers and quipping, "I should have brought my swimming trunks".
William's trip is at the behest of the British government. Until now it had been British policy not to make an official royal visit until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was resolved. British officials have given no detailed explanation for the change in policy.
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