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Leaders and family eulogise Shimon Peres as he is laid to rest

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The President of the United States, Israeli leaders and his family gathered to eulogise Israel’s former-President Shimon Peres as he was laid to rest this morning in Jerusalem.

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin said: “Today you are gathered to your forefathers in the land which you loved so, but your dreams remain, and your beliefs uninterred. As one man you carried an entire nation on the wings of imagination, on the wings of vision.” Rivlin said that Peres’s death left “a feeling of the end of an era in the nation’s life”.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Shimon lived a life of purpose he soared to many heights… he was a great man of Israel he was a great man of the world. We find hope in his legacy as does the world.” He concluded with the words: “I cry over you today. I loved you. We all loved you.”

US President Barack Obama said that Peres “showed us that justice and hope are at the heart of the Zionist idea. A free life in a homeland regained. A secure life in a nation that can defend itself, by itself”. He also praised Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to attend the funeral.

Obama compared Peres to leaders such as Nelson Mandela and The Queen, “whose lives span such epics” that they speak “in depth and knowledge, not soundbites”. Obama said that Peres “knew better than the cynic that if you look out over the arc of history, human beings should be filled not with fear, but with hope”.

Former US President Bill Clinton, who oversaw Peres’ signing of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, said that Peres “lived 93 years in a state of constant wonder over the unbelievable potential of all the rest of us to rise above our wounds, our resentments, our fears”. He requested that “whenever the road we travel comes to a dead [end]… in his honour I ask that we remember Shimon Peres’s luminous smile, and imagine”.

Peres’s three children also spoke in honour of their father. His son, Chemi Peres, talked about the close personal relationships with family members. He said: “Your love was the first and greatest gift you gave me.” He added: “In the last ten years of your life, as President of the State of Israel and President of the Peres Centre for Peace, our family grew closer than ever.”

Shimon Peres’s daughter Professor Zvika Walden shared childhood memories, saying Peres was “in love with his family, with the people of Israel, with the State of Israel”. She added: “My father, you were a lover of life, who sprung like a lion at daybreak to fulfil his mission. For so long, I tried to catch up with you. But now, heed my loving words, you have earned a well-deserved rest.”