Jerusalem – Thousands of Israelis filed past the flag-draped coffin of Shimon Peres outside parliament on Thursday, honoring the former president and prime minister who won worldwide praise for his efforts in peace talks with the Palestinians.
U.S. President Barack Obama is among foreign dignitaries due to attend the funeral on Friday of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who died on Wednesday at 93, two weeks after a stroke.
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But with Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations frozen since 2014, it was unclear whether Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who sent a condolence letter to Peres’s family, would travel to Jerusalem from nearby Ramallah for the ceremony.
The leaders of Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, were not on the roster of participants issued by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
Tens of thousands of people were expected to walk past Peres’s coffin during Thursday’s 12-hour memorial in the parliamentary plaza, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin laid wreaths.
“We came to pay our respects to a wonderful man who we thought would carry on forever,” said Michael Leon, a British-born bank worker. “He was a man with a great dream to bring peace to this region, the new Middle East. Sadly, we have not reached that goal yet but we still carry on with his aims.”
Britain’s Prince Charles, former U.S. president Bill Clinton and French President Francois Hollande were due to attend Peres’s funeral in the “Great Leaders of the Nation” section of Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery.
Peres 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, the Oslo Accords, which however never turned into a lasting treaty.
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What a shame Eichler, being fully part of the zionistic system. The excuse is’ money’ of course
A mixed of men & women-girls what a nice respect for him.
I hope the organizers realize there is no Jewish version of a wake (lying in state) nor does Halacha allow for the followers as that is a Christian tradition.
To the editor. Here it is less than a week before rosh Hashanah and you have to post the despicable comments made by these evI’ll satmar chasidim! Puresatmar and alterg, may the ribbono shel olam judge you both the way you judge others.
Givald!
What a Shanda Eichler with his beard and Payos being there. How correct the Gedolim were not to have anything in common with Zionism.What money can do!
Every Torah observant Jew should voice their protest. Looking at this picture should make one throw up. Fa!
What a Chilul Hashem Eichler is causing just days before Rosh Hashana!
Just unbelievable how you guys here get all worked up if anyone criticize or says anything bad about Zionism and the Israel. At the same time you people glee and throw every negative statement against Satmar or Torah observant Jews in general.
B”H it wasn’t an open casket!
As for the putrid comments from PureSatmar (how about them Section 8 fraudsters from Willy??) & AlterG, a real piece of sina, let them rant. But their comments on the Teitelbaum, Englander & other pair of “alleged” scammers were conspicuously absent. Interesting, that. They reserve their loathing for non-Satmars, & forget about Chillul Hashem their own Kehilla carries out on a regular basis. HYPOCRITES.