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Shimon Peres obit

Judith Sudilovsky | Catholic News Service

Former Israeli President Shimon Peres is pictured in a 2014 photo. Peres, who dedicated himself to the work of achieving peace during the last years of his life, died Sept. 28 at age 93.

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JERUSALEM — One of the last ceremonies in which former
Israeli President Shimon Peres participated as a public figure took place in
the Vatican Gardens in June 2014, the last month of his presidency. Along with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, he planted an olive tree at the invitation
of Pope Francis.

 The evening of peace
prayers and the tree planting had been initiated by the pope following his
pilgrimage a month earlier to the Holy Land, where he met with both men, and
just weeks after American-sponsored peace talks had foundered.

 At the meeting, Peres,
who died Sept. 28 at 93, called the act of making peace a “holy
mission.”

 “I was young. Now I
am old,” media reports quoted him as saying after the ceremony. “I
experienced war. I tasted peace. Never will I forget the bereaved families — parents and children — who paid the cost of war. And all my life I
shall never stop to act for peace, for generations to come. Let’s all of us
join hands and make it happen.”

 At the Vatican Sept. 28,
Pope Francis said Peres’ death renewed his “great appreciation for the
late president’s tireless efforts in favor of peace. As the state of Israel
mourns Mr. Peres, I hope that his memory and many years of service will inspire
us all to work with ever greater urgency for peace and reconciliation between
peoples.”

 Early in his political
career, Peres was known as a military hawk, who, unlike his colleagues in the
left-leaning Labor Party, supported the establishment of settlements in the
West Bank. By the second half of his career in public life, in the early 1980s,
he became a staunch proponent of territorial compromise and the peace process.

 Peres dedicated himself
to the work of achieving peace during the last years of his life, largely
through the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv, which he founded in 1996, and
other initiatives. He also became an advocate for responsible use of the
earth’s resources.

 Two months after leaving
office as Israel’s ninth president, Peres again met with Pope Francis. He
initiated the meeting to propose that the pontiff head a parallel United
Nations called the “United Religions” to counter religious extremism
in the world.

 At the time, Jesuit
Father Federico Lombardi, then-Vatican spokesman, said the pope had listened to
Peres’ idea during the unusually long 45-minute meeting, “showing his
interest, his attention and encouragement,” reflecting the pope’s
“esteem and appreciation” for the nonagenarian.

 The pope did not commit
to the proposal.

 Associated with the
secular left of Israel throughout his life, Peres later counseled in the
meeting with the pope not to underestimate “the power of the human
spirit,” and he emphasized the important role prayer can have in
peacemaking.

 “We must not become
cynical,” he was quoted as saying afterward. “The human being is much
more than being made up of just flesh and blood.”

 Born in Poland in 1923 in
an area that is now Belarus, Peres was the son of a successful timber merchant
and a librarian. He lived in the religiously observant home of his grandfather,
a prominent rabbi who taught him the Talmud, a collection of writings that
constitute Jewish civil and religious law.

 Later, as a political
leader in Israel, he opposed ultra-Orthodox religious extremism and called on
Israelis to defend the democratic character of the country.

 With the rise of the
Nazis in Germany, in 1934 Peres’ family traveled in 1934 to Palestine, which
was then under the rule of the British Mandate. Peres grew up in Tel Aviv and,
as a young man, he helped found Kibbutz Alumot, one of many communal
agricultural villages founded by Jewish pioneers.

 All of his relatives who
did not leave Europe were killed in the Holocaust. In his address at the German
Bundestag Jan. 27, 2010 —
International Holocaust Remembrance Day — Peres recalled how the Jews from his village, including his
grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Melzter, were herded into the synagogue and burned alive
by Nazis forces.

 Peres’ involvement in the
political and defense capabilities of Israel spanned six decades. After being
elected to the Knesset in 1959, he served continuously except for a three month
break in 2006 and 2007 until he assumed the presidency. He also served in
several ministerial positions, including two nonconsecutive terms as prime
minister.

 As foreign minister, he
initiated negotiations with the Palestinians, which led to the signing of the
Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993. Peres, former
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, who later became
president of the Palestinian Authority, received the Noble Peace Prize for
negotiating the agreement.

 Soon thereafter, Peres
oversaw the negotiations with the Vatican that resulted in the signing of a
Fundamental Agreement with the Holy See Dec. 30, 1993, and led to the opening
of diplomatic relations between the two entities.

 “President Peres was
a man of political dialogue and also interreligious dialogue,” said
Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali of Jerusalem. “I remember every time we
went to attend the official New Year reception, he spoke about the importance
of dialogue between people of faith. He really believed in that.”

 Because of Peres’ belief
in the power of people of faith, Pope Francis invited Peres to plant the olive
tree in the Vatican Gardens, Bishop Shomali told Catholic News Service.

 “It was an
interreligious ceremony with prayers for peace and he will be remembered for
this encounter in Rome,” he said.

 In Israel, Peres was
beloved and disliked for the peace negotiations, with some observers labeling
him a traitor. The same held true within the Catholic community, which is part
of the Israel’s Arab society, said Wadie Abunassar, a Catholic political
analyst.

 “Some people love
him but others called him a fox because, in reality, he did not achieve a good
agreement with the (Palestinians),” Abunassar said. “But some people
remember him as a good man who achieved the Oslo peace agreements and who was a
bitter enemy of the extreme right.”

 

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