Ariel Sharon death: Israelis pay respects at Knesset

sraelis are filing past the body of ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who has died aged 85 of heart failure after eight years in a coma.

Draped in the national flag, the body is lying in state at the parliament building in Jerusalem. A private burial will take place on Monday.

Israeli and world figures have paid tribute to a man who fought in four major wars before taking up politics.

But there was little sorrow among Palestinians who saw him as an enemy.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Kevin ConnollyBBC News, Jerusalem

Many Israelis felt they'd said goodbye to Ariel Sharon when he slipped into a coma eight years ago.

But the end of that long and agonising period for his family when he lay suspended between life and death has prompted an outpouring of grief and reflection.

Sharon was a part of the generation that created the state of Israel and even Israelis who didn't much care for his politics recognised his stature.

Shuttle buses will take members of the public to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament where his coffin will lie in state. One of the pick-up points will be at Latrun - an old British Army fortress on the road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv where the young Ariel Sharon fought - and was seriously injured - in the war of independence back in 1948.

Given the bitterly divided history of the modern Middle East it's inevitable perhaps that a man eulogised by Israelis would be demonised by its Arab enemies. Nothing in that would have surprised Sharon who understood the region well and saw his role as the establishment and protection of the Jewish state in which he passionately believed..

• 
  

A convoy of vehicles brought Mr Sharon's body from the Tzrifin military base to the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) on Sunday, after which members of the Knesset guard carried his coffin to a podium in front of the building where he is lying in state.

Prayers have been said over his coffin and flags are flying at half mast. The Israeli public will be able to view the coffin until 1600 GMT.

Politicians will hold a special commemoration on Monday, before Mr Sharon is buried next to his wife Lili in a private ceremony at his ranch in Sderot, in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

Dignitaries from around the world are expected to attend his funeral, including the American Vice President, Joe Biden, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov.

Israel's President Shimon Peres, a long-time friend and political rival who joined a unity government with Mr Sharon in 2001, described Mr Sharon on Saturday as "an exceptional man and an exceptional commander who moved his people and loved them and the people loved him".

Mr Sharon, known as "The Bulldozer", was a giant of Israel's military and political scene whose term as prime minister ended abruptly when he had a major stroke that put him in a coma in January 2006.

Months before his stroke, he had guided Israelis through a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, with the declared aim of easing tensions with the Palestinians.