Israeli ex-leader Peres dies at 93
Elder statesman’s peace efforts hailed
ISRAELI ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres died yesterday, about two weeks after suffering a major stroke, triggering an outpouring of grief for the beloved elder statesman.
The 93-year-old died in his sleep at about 3am, Rafi Walden, who is also Peres’s son-in-law, told reporters.
He had been surrounded by family members, said a source close to Peres. His family held a press conference later in the morning, praising Peres’s tireless work ethic “his devotion to peace”.
“He had no interest other than serving the people of Israel,” said his son Chemi, his eyes moist as he read a letter on behalf of the family at the hospital.
US President Barack Obama immediately hailed Peres as a friend who “never gave up on the possibility of peace”.
“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,” Obama said.
“My friend Shimon was one of those people.”
Former US president Bill Clinton, who helped usher in the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s, said: “The Middle East has lost a fervent advocate for peace and reconciliation.
“I’ll never forget how happy he was 23 years ago when he signed the Oslo accords on the White House lawn, heralding a more hopeful era in Israeli-Palestinian relations.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his “profound sadness”.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, the head of Labour, Peres’s longtime party, said he will be “forever remembered as an icon of Israel’s history”.
Peres held nearly every major office in the country, serving twice as prime minister and also as president, a mostly ceremonial role, from 2007 to 2014.
He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiating the Oslo accords, which envisioned an independent Palestinian state.
The former hawk turned dove was widely respected both in Israel and abroad.
Peres had been in hospital near Tel Aviv since September 13, when he was admitted feeling unwell and suffered the stroke with internal bleeding. He had been under sedation and on respiratory support in intensive care.
But there were signs of improvement last week, and on September 18 Peres’s office said doctors planned to gradually reduce his sedation and respiratory support to judge his response.
Walden had said at the time that Peres had seen “very slow, moderate improvement”.
But on Tuesday a source said his condition had taken a downturn and he was “fighting for his life”. Family members arrived at the hospital.
Born in Poland in 1923, Peres emigrated to what was then British-mandated Palestine when he was 11.
He joined the Zionist struggle and met David Ben-Gurion, who would become his mentor and Israel’s first prime minister.
Peres became director general of the nascent defence ministry at just 29. —AFP