Prince William visits Holocaust memorial

JERUSALEM — Prince William began his visit to Israel on Tuesday with an emotional tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, a soccer game with Arab and Jewish youth and an introduction to Tel Aviv's vibrant start-up scene.

The prince is the first member of the British royal family to pay an official visit to Israel. Though the trip is being billed as non-political, the prince is meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and visiting sites at the heart of the century-old conflict.

He started off the day with a visit to Yad Vashem, where he met with two survivors who escaped Nazi Germany for the safety of Britain.

“It has been a profoundly moving experience to visit Yad Vashem today,” the prince wrote in the memorial's guestbook. “It is almost impossible to comprehend this appalling event in history. Every name, photograph and memory recorded here is a tragic reminder of the unimaginable human cost of the Holocaust and of the immense loss suffered by the Jewish people.”

Later, President Reuven Rivlin asked the prince to deliver a “message of peace” to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whom the prince will meet later in the week.