Yitzhak Shamir, Israel’s seventh prime minister, was laid to rest on Monday evening on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
Mr Shamir passed away on Shabbat in Tel Aviv after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for a decade.
President Shimon Peres — his political and ideological rival and cabinet colleague — said “both of us were convinced that we are acting as Israelis, loyal to our nation and loving our country. It enabled us to gift the state the advantages of a national unity government.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted the poem by Yair Stern, Shamir’s underground commander, whom he replaced after Stern was killed by British officers.
“‘Anonymous soldiers, without uniforms,’ that is what Yitzhak Shamir and his underground comrades sang and that is how Shamir lived until his last day, in a deep conviction of service and mission.
"In politics, Yitzhak Shamir was already known, but in his heart, his humble conduct, he continued to see himself a loyal anonymous soldier to the nation and land.”
