The former Israeli prime minister and military man’s legacy is that of "The Bulldozer" – a polarising builder and destroyer.
At the first of two funeral services, Israel has paid tribute to Ariel Sharon who is viewed as a hero at home and a war criminal by some others.
Following the death of Ariel Sharon, Isreal has increased its security for the former prime minister’s funeral near the Gaza border.
Despite him being a man of war, Sharon’s supporters question whether future leaders will have the same clout when it comes to securing peace.
The former Israeli general and prime minister has died after suffering a stroke and spending the past eight years in a coma.
The condition of Israeli former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma since 2006, continues to decline, says a hospital official.
Israeli media have reported that Ariel Sharon, who has been in a vegetative state for eight years, could be dead within days.
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/ 20 September 2008
One of Tzipi Livni’s greatest challenges will be to restore some integrity to the tainted Israeli political system, writes Rory McCarthy.
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/ 10 September 2008
The US and its allies pose the biggest
danger to world peace
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was questioned by police for an hour on Friday, the second time this month that investigators have quizzed him over allegations he took bribes from an American businessman. Investigators from the National Fraud Unit turned up early for a previously arranged appointment at Olmert’s official residence in Jerusalem.
Repressed memories, the horrors of war and Israel’s dubious role in a notorious Beirut refugee camp massacre are the themes of the Cannes film festival’s first ever fully-animated documentary. Ari Folman’s anti-war movie is premiered in Cannes as Israel celebrates its 60th year of existence and its neighbour Lebanon hits yet another political crisis pushing it to the brink of civil war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced a barrage of calls to resign on Friday after he admitted taking cash from an American businessman at the centre of a police investigation into suspected bribery. But Olmert, whose departure could disrupt peace negotiations with the Palestinians, continued with his duties.
Israel’s fraud squad on Friday questioned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has been dogged by corruption scandals that surfaced after he took office in 2006, police said. The investigators, led by the head of the National Fraud Squad, Lieutenant Commander Shlomi Ayalon, questioned Olmert in his Jerusalem residence.
The highest and oldest wall is that which separates ”us” from ”them”. This is described today as a great divide of religions or ”a clash of civilisations”, which are false concepts, propagated to provide ”the other” — a target for fear and hatred that justifies invasion and plunder, writes John Pilger.
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/ 11 January 2008
United States President George Bush made his most explicit call for an end to the Israeli occupation after making his first visit to the West Bank on Thursday, where he witnessed Israel’s military checkpoints, the vast West Bank barrier and the spread of Jewish settlements.
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/ 29 November 2007
Israeli police said on Thursday there was insufficient evidence to indict Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a graft case, a major boost for the premier as he returned home from a United Sates peace conference. ”There is insufficient evidence to indict Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the Bank Leumi case,” police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said.
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/ 29 October 2007
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Monday he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer requiring surgery but vowed to stay in office, confident of a full recovery. ”Following the results of a regular check-up, I was diagnosed with initial signs of prostate cancer,” the 62-year-old prime minister told a packed news conference in Jerusalem.