IMAGE: CNS photo/Abir Sultan, EP
By Judith Sudilovsky
JERUSALEM (CNS) — 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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