Israel grants permission for Abbas to attend Peres's funeral in Jerusalem

Palestinian Authority leader seeks to come to former Israeli president's funeral at Mt. Herzl.

By ADAM RASGON
Updated: OCTOBER 5, 2016 13:28
Former Israeli president Shimon Peres (R) shakes hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (C) at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea May 22, 2015 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Former Israeli president Shimon Peres (R) shakes hands with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (C) at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea May 22, 2015
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and four senior Palestinian officials will attend former President Shimon Peres’s funeral on Friday.
Abbas asked the Coordinator for Government Affairs in the Territories (COGAT), the branch of the IDF responsible for coordinating civil and security affairs in the West Bank and Gaza, for permission to attend the funeral at Har Herzl.
COGAT passed the request along to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the latter approved it.
Abbas will be accompanied by PA General Intelligence Chief Majid Faraj, PLO Executive Committee Secretary General Saeb Erakat, Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh, and Palestinian Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society Muhammed al-Madani.
Madani confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that Abbas, himself, and the three aforementioned officials will attend the funeral.
On Wednesday, Abbas sent a condolence letter to the Peres family, expressing his “sorrow and sadness” over Peres’s death.
Abbas said that Peres made “unremitting efforts to reach a permanent peace until the last moments of his life.”
Dozens of other world leaders began arriving in Israel on Thursday to say their final goodbyes’ to Peres.