Israel in mourning
FORMER PRESIDENT SHIMON PERES REMEMBERED AS A MAN WHO CHANGED HISTORY
JERUSALEM: Former Israeli president and elder statesman Shimon Peres, 93, has died in Tel Aviv, prompting United States President Barack Obama to declare ‘‘a light has gone out, but the hope he gave us will burn forever’’.
Mr Peres, an indefatigable campaigner for Middle East peace who jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, died in Tel Hashomer hospital, where he had been since suffering a stroke two weeks ago.
He had made some progress before a sudden deterioration in his condition on Tuesday.
‘‘There are few people who we share this world with who change the course of human history, not just through their role in human events, but because they expand our moral imagination and force us to expect more of ourselves. My friend Shimon was one of those people,’’ Mr Obama said.
Mr Obama was reportedly planning to attend Mr Peres’s funeral, which Israeli media said was expected to be held tomorrow.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement expressing ‘‘deep personal grief at the passing of the beloved of the nation’’.
The Israeli cabinet yesterday convened for a special session of mourning.
Mr Peres’s death was announced by his son Chemi and son-in-law Rafi Walden, who said he died without suffering and that he had donated his corneas for transplant.
‘‘His life ended abruptly when he was still working on his great passion — strengthening the country and striving for peace,’’ Mr Walden, who was also Mr Peres’s personal physician, said. ‘‘His legacy will remain with us all.’’ Mr Peres was part of almost every major development in Israel since the country’s founding in 1948. In a career spanning nearly 70 years, he served in a dozen cabinets and was twice a Labour prime minister.
He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with the late former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for reaching an interim peace deal in 1993 which never turned into a lasting treaty.
Mr Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultra-nationalist who opposed the interim accords and it was Mr Peres who took over as prime minister after his death.
Mr Peres is widely seen as having gained nuclear capabilities for Israel by procuring the secret Dimona reactor from France while Defence Ministry director-general in the 1950s. As defence minister, he oversaw the 1976 rescue of hijacked Israelis at Entebbe airport in Uganda.
Mr Peres held the largely ceremonial post of president from 2007 to 2014 and used the pulpit to continue to advocate peace.
He received an artificial pacemaker earlier this month following a series of health scares, including a mild heart attack.