Israel bids farewell to Yitzhak Shamir

Posted on Jul 2, 2012 in Top News | 0 comments

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was a “determined, exact, brave and modest” man.

Netanyahu spoke as he stood near Shamir’s coffin, which was at the Knesset for public viewing.

Burial services for Shamir, who died Saturday at the age of 96, were scheduled in the early evening at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery.

“Shamir was and always will be an example to public service … [he] dedicated his life to the Zionist idea, to the people of Israel and the land of Israel,” The Jerusalem Post quoted Netanyahu as saying.

Shamir will always be remembered as someone who was “determined, exact, brave and modest,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin were to deliver eulogies at Shamir’s state services, along with members of his family.

Government ministers held a moment of silence at a Cabinet meeting Sunday.

Shamir, the country’s seventh prime minister died at a nursing home in Tel Aviv. He was to be buried alongside his wife Shulamit who died last year at the age of 88.

Copyright 2012 by United Press International