Israel mourns ‘exceptional leader’
PRESIDENT Shimon Peres led Israeli tributes to Nelson Mandela, lauding his “indelible mark on the struggle against racism and discrimination.”
Stating that citizens of Israel “mourn alongside the nations of the world and the people of South Africa, who lost an exceptional leader”, Peres said: “The world lost a great leader who changed the course of history.”
Mandela, he added, “was a passionate advocate for democracy, a respected mediator, a Nobel peace prize laureate and above all a builder of bridges of peace and dialogue who paid a heavy personal price for his struggle in the years he spent in prison and fighting for his people.”
According to Peres, “Nelson Mandela’s legacy for his people and for the world will forever remain engraved in the pages of history and the hearts of all those who were touched by him. He will be remembered forever.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that he was “the father of his country, a man of vision and a freedom fighter who disavowed violence.”
Netanyahu said: “He set a personal example for his country during the long years in which he was imprisoned. He was never haughty. He worked to heal rifts within South African society and succeeded in preventing outbreaks of racial hatred. He will be remembered as the father of the new South Africa and a moral leader of the highest order.”
Despite both leaders’ enthusiasm for Mandela, they decided not to attend the memorial that took place on Tuesday or the funeral, which will happen on Sunday.
Netanyahu’s office cited logistical and cost reasons. Peres’ office said that the president “really wanted to go” but could not as he is getting over the flu.
Upon Mandela’s death, Palestinians shone a spotlight on his friendship with their late leader Yasser Arafat, on the fact that some of Arafat’s militants trained some of Mandela’s followers, and Arafat’s calls for Israel to withdraw from land it captured in 1967.
He was a “symbol of liberation from colonialism and occupation,” said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, while a statement by the Palestine Liberation Organisation said that he “embodied the struggle against colonialism and oppression.”
But Israelis warned against what they consider the tendency of Palestinians to misinterpret Mandela’s stances. Benjamin Pogrund, a South African writer who knew Mandela well and now lives in Jerusalem told The AJN: “He was solidly for Israel’s existence and security.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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