Israelis mourn writer, peace advocate

TEL AVIV: Hundreds mourned revered Israeli writer and peace advocate Amos Oz on Monday at a funeral ceremony where the country’s president hailed him as the nation’s storyteller not afraid to be called a “traitor.” Crowds lined up at a small theatre in central Tel Aviv, where Oz’s closed casket lay on the stage ahead of eulogies from speakers including Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. In a sign of the widespread appreciation and respect for Oz in Israel, his funeral was broadcast live on television, unusual for a writer. Family members, politicians and average Israelis touched by Oz’s works slowly filed past the black coffin ahead of the ceremony that followed the writer’s death on Friday from cancer at the age of 79. Oz’s burial was to take place later at the Hulda kibbutz in central Israel. A teary Rivlin recalled their childhood friendship in Jerusalem, where they were neighbours growing up.