Prince Charles appears to snub US vice president Mike Pence at Holocaust memorial
Prince Charles appeared to pass on a handshake with US Vice President Mike Pence during an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, footage showed.
In the video, which was posted on social media, Prince Charles is seen shaking hands with other attendees standing in a row, until he arrives in front of Mr Pence.
The Prince of Wales then appears to completely ignore Mr Pence, walking over to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, instead.
Mr Pence appears to have a belated response to the apparent snub, but it is not immediately clear if he reached his own hand out to shake Prince Charles’.
The Holocaust memorial convened in Jerusalem on Thursday and was billed as Israel’s biggest-ever international event as delegations from nearly 50 countries attended.
Heads of state, including France's Emmanuel Macron, and Russian president Vladimir Putin, gathered at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre to remember more than one million people, mostly Jews, who were killed in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
Prince Charles spoke during the event and warned that “hatred and intolerance still lurk in the human heart”.
He said the lessons of the Holocaust are still “searingly relevant”.
“The magnitude of the genocide that was visited upon the Jewish people defies comprehension and can make those of us living in the shadows of those indescribably events feel helplessly inadequate,” he said.
Ahead of the event, the prince met with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin and expressed a commitment to battle antisemitism.
He also met with survivors of the Holocaust and was invited to commemorate his visit by planting an oak tree in the garden of Beit HaNassi, the president’s official residence.
Mr Pence used his speech at the event to urge world leaders to confront Iran by “[exposing] the vile tide of antisemitism”.
He said: “In that same spirit, we must also stand strong against the leading state purveyor of antisemitism, against the one government in the world that denies the Holocaust as a matter of state policy and threatens to wipe Israel off the map.
“The world must stand strong against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Additional reporting by agencies
Read more
World leaders gather for Holocaust forum in Jerusalem without Poland
