Biden and Blair to attend Sharon funeral

Ariel Sharon, who died in hospital on Saturday, will be buried this afternoon at his family ranch in southern Israel in a military ceremony, next to his second wife Lilly.

US vice-president Joe Biden, Quartet envoy and former British prime minister Tony Blair and German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be among the foreign dignitaries attending the funeral.

Yesterday, thousands of Israelis paid their last respects, filing past his coffin which lay in state, draped in the national flag, in the plaza in front of the Knesset parliament.

Ministers stood for a minute’s silence at yesterday’s cabinet meeting before prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu eulogised his predecessor and sometimes political rival.

“Ariel Sharon was first and foremost a warrior and a commander, among the greatest military commanders produced by the Jewish people in recent times and throughout its history,” he said. “He represents the generation of Jewish fighters that our people established with the renewal of our independence.”

After his death, tributes poured in from Israeli and world leaders. President Shimon Peres called Mr Sharon a “dear friend” who had lost his final battle. “Arik was a brave soldier and a daring leader who loved his nation and his nation loved him.”

Not all Israelis were willing to praise the former prime minister, however.

Knesset member Orit Strock from the far-right Jewish Home, a resident of the Jewish settlement enclave in the West Bank city of Hebron, wrote on Facebook that God deserved praise for removing Sharon from public life before he could uproot West Bank settlements as he had Gaza settlements.

Public security minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch launched a criminal investigation after far-right elements issued advertisements celebrating Mr Sharon’s death.

US president Barack Obama praised Mr Sharon as a leader who dedicated his life to the state of Israel.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Mr Sharon was “a man of strong conviction who had a clear idea of what the future of his country should be and who fought for it with determination”.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement lamenting the fact that Mr Sharon died without standing trial.

“It’s a shame that Sharon has gone to his grave without facing justice for his role in Sabra and Shatila and other abuses,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at the NGO, said.

Celebrations were reported at the Sabra and Shatila camps in Beirut , where Palestinian refugees were massacred, and in the West Bank and Gaza. "He is a butcher, he is a killer, he is a murderer," said Walid, a Palestinian from Shatila, quoted in Lebanon's Daily Star. "All the Palestinian people are happy he is dead."

Senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub also blamed Mr Sharon for the death of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. “Sharon was a criminal, responsible for the assassination of Arafat, and we would have hoped to see him appear before the International Criminal Court as a war criminal.”