Palestinian president to attend Peres’ funeral

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas will attend the funeral of Israeli ex-President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, Palestinian officials said Thursday, in what will be a rare visit to Jerusalem.
Several Palestinian officials confirmed his participation at Friday’s funeral, speaking to AFP condition of anonymity.
Making the short trip from nearby Ramallah, he will join leaders from across the world at the funeral, including US President Barack Obama.
Many Arabs and Palestinians have denounced Peres as a “war criminal” following his death, but Abbas hailed him as a “brave” partner for peace and sent his family condolences.
Abbas’s attendance at the funeral comes with peace efforts at a complete standstill since April 2014.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for direct negotiations with Abbas, but the Palestinians have pursued an international strategy, saying years of talks with the Israelis have not ended the occupation of the West Bank.
Abbas’s attendance raises the possibility, however slight, that the two could meet.
The last substantial public meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu is thought to have been in 2010, though there have been unconfirmed reports of secret meetings since then.
Peres 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.
Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish extremist opposed to Oslo in 1995. Arafat did not attend his funeral for security reasons, but he visited Rabin’s wife in Tel Aviv.
Peres died on Wednesday at age 93 after a major stroke.
While those in the West and within Israel hailed him as a peacemaker, many Palestinians view him very differently.
They have cited his involvement in successive Arab-Israeli wars, the occupation of Palestinian territory and his support for settlement building before his work on Oslo.
He was also prime minister in 1996 when more than 100 civilians were killed while sheltering at a UN peacekeepers’ base in the Lebanese village of Qana fired upon by Israel.

Source: Arab News