Arafat Invited to Leah Rabin Funeral
JERUSALEM — Israel said Monday that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is welcome to attend the funeral of Leah Rabin, the fiery peace advocate he befriended after her husband, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will head the U.S. delegation to the funeral Wednesday. Two American diplomats joining her are Dennis Ross and Aaron Miller, longtime mediators in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov also planned to attend the funeral, the Israeli government said.
It was not immediately clear if Arafat would participate in the ceremony or pay a private condolence call--as he did in secret after the 1995 assassination.
“For us, she was a very close friend to our people, to our cause, from the beginning, and no doubt it was a big catastrophe for those who are working on the peace process,†Arafat said of Leah Rabin.
Rabin died Sunday of cancer. She was 72.
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