Leah Rabin laid to rest near husband

JERUSALEM (AP) - Leah Rabin, a passionate campaigner for peace, was buried yesterday beside her husband, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 by an extremist Israeli who objected to his peace offers to the Palestinians.

World leaders, including U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, paid tribute to Rabin, who died Sunday of cancer.

More than 1,500 invited guests attended the simple ceremony in a pine grove at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl ceremony. The mourners included German President Johannes Rau and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.S. Mideast peace envoy Dennis Ross.

Rabin's daughter, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, pressed a white handkerchief to her face to hold back tears as the simple wooden coffin was lowered into the ground.

In a sign of the unique status Rabin had acquired, she was the first Israeli who did not hold high office to be buried in a plot normally reserved for the nation's presidents and prime ministers.

Clinton said Rabin was "a wonderful woman, a dear friend, an ambassador of peace, a woman of valor."

She said she was wearing a pin Rabin had given her, and pledged that the United States would always stand by Israel, "especially in difficult times like these," a reference to six weeks of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has left more than 200 people dead.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres praised Rabin for taking her husband's message of Israeli-Arab peace to the world after he was shot and killed on Nov. 4, 1995.

"When Yitzhak was assassinated, Leah knew that she must not turn into a grieving, agonized widow," but must carry the torch ignited by her husband, Peres said.

Rau recalled that Rabin was born in Germany but emigrated with her family when the Nazis came to power.

When she visited Germany after her husband's assassination to spread his legacy of peace, "people listened to her," Rau said.

Several speakers noted her sharp tongue. Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered thanks to Rabin for her steadfast commitment and work for peace and "also for the tough criticism that you gave me in recent days."

In a newspaper interview, she said her husband would be spinning in his grave because of concessions Barak offered the Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Earlier yesterday, Rabin's coffin was placed at the Tel Aviv square where her husband was killed. Hundreds of mourners filed past the coffin, which was flanked by bird of paradise flowers and draped with an Israeli flag. The square was later renamed after Rabin.

AP PHOTO

Rachel Yaakov, right, sister of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, comforts Dalia Rabin-Pelossof at the grave her mother Leah Rabin during her funeral in Jerusalem yesterday.