WASHINGTON—US President Barack Obama will join other world leaders in attending the funeral of Israeli ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, the White House said Wednesday.
Obama, who ordered US flags at half-staff late Wednesday, “will lead the US delegation to Jerusalem to participate in the funeral,” the White House said.
He is to depart for Israel Thursday and return after the ceremony on Friday.
Meanwhile, protesters marched on Wednesday in a California town following the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man said to be mentally ill, as local officials urged calm and pledged a full investigation.
The victim, identified as Ugandan refugee Alfred Olango, 30, was shot on Tuesday in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon after police received an emergency call about a man behaving erratically and walking in traffic.
Former US president Bill Clinton will also attend Peres’ funeral, but will not be joined by wife Hillary as she campaigns in the final stretch of the White House race, her team said Wednesday.
Clinton, who oversaw the signing of the Oslo Accords that envisioned an independent Palestinian state, paid tribute upon news of Peres’ death to “a fervent advocate for peace and reconciliation and for a future where all the children of Abraham build a better tomorrow.”
But while grief was widespread for Israelis, among Palestinians responses tended to be diametrically opposed after decades of hostility between them.
On the streets of major Palestinian cities, people labeled Peres a “war criminal” and accused him of “massacres.”
Obama led tributes to the elder statesman as a friend who refused to give up on the dream of peace.
Peres’ commitment to Israel’s security and pursuit of peace was “rooted in his own unshakable moral foundation and unflagging optimism” the US leader said in a statement.
Obama is to join world leaders including French President Francois Hollande and German President Joachim Gauck as well as Britain’s Prince Charles in attending Peres’ Friday funeral at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, where many Israeli dignitaries are buried.
Flags at the White House, on all public buildings and grounds, and at US buildings overseas will be flown at half-staff through sunset Friday “as a mark of respect for the memory of Shimon Peres,” the White House said in a statement.
Peres, who was 93, held nearly every major office in the country, serving twice as prime minister and also as president, a mostly ceremonial role, from 2007 to 2014.