Israeli ex-president and Nobel laureate Peres dies
RAMAT GAN, Israel: Israeli ex- president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres died yesterday, some 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 around 3am ( 0000 GMT), Rafi Walden, who is also Peres’s soninlaw, told AFP. He had been surrounded by family members, a source close to Peres told AFP. His family held a press conference later in the morning, praising Peres’s tireless work ethic and what they called 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. My friend Shimon was one of those people,” Obama said in a statement.
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 Sept 13, when he was admitted feeling unwell and suffered the stroke with internal ble e d ing. — AFP