BICOM

A delegation of 20 Arab leaders from local municipalities visited the family of Israel’s former President Shimon Peres to express their condolences, following his death last week aged 93.

The delegation arrived at the Peres Centre for Peace in Jaffa, where Peres’s three children are observing the Jewish tradition of a seven-day mourning period. In a statement, they said: “Shimon Peres was the father of all of us. We feel what you feel.”

It The statement added: “Peres cared about the Arab public, and devoted his life to promoting coexistence and peace and he knew that all men are created equal. He made history in Israel.”

Therehad been significant controversy in Israel after 13 MKs from the Joint Arab List refused to attend Peres’s funeral on Friday. Numerous world leaders attended the funeral, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and senior Egyptian and Jordanian representatives.

However, Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint Arab List told Channel Two that Peres’s funeral was a “national day of mourning in which I have no place; not in the narrative, not in the symbols that exclude me, not in the stories of Peres as a man who built up Israel’s defences”.

The delegation of Arab municipal leaders sharply criticised Odeh and his parliamentary colleagues, claiming “those who boycotted the funeral did so on their own and not on behalf of the Arab public”.

Hussein al-Heib, chairman of the Tuba Zangaria Local Council added: “We are the real representatives of the Arab people in the State of Israel. This delegation represents the Israeli Arabs, and not the boycotters. We have come to strengthen the coexistence between us and our state.”

Peres’s daughter, Prof. Tzvia Walden responded, saying: “You are brave people, thank you for coming. Some people think we cannot live together but our father knew and believed that we must and can live together. We all believe in a better future and that you have come helps to fulfil his wishes.”