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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Long-serving Jerusalem mayor Kollek dies at 95 | |
| 2007-01-03 | |
| JERUSALEM - Former Jerusalem mayor Theodor ‘Teddy’ Kollek, a tireless preacher of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence in a holy city of deep religious and nationalist divisions, died on Tuesday aged 95. ‘Teddy was Jerusalem and Jerusalem was Teddy,’ the current mayor, Uri Lupolianski, said after his office reported the death of one of Israel’s most famous political figures. Kollek became mayor of Jewish West Jerusalem in 1965, two years before Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in a Middle East war. He was re-elected five times, serving 28 years, before losing in 1993 to Ehud Olmert, now Israel’s prime minister. ‘Kollek’s name and the glory of Jerusalem will forever remain inseparable,’ Olmert said in a statement mourning his former political opponent, who will be buried on Thursday. Kollek, born in Nagyvazsony, a small town on the Danube, and raised in Vienna, launched more ambitious building and restoration projects in Jerusalem than any city father since 16th century Turkish Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who built the Old City walls. Instantly recognisable in his suit and open-necked shirt, Kollek would set out on morning ‘inspection’ walks through Jerusalem’s diverse neighbourhoods. He publicly listed his home telephone number, saying the mayor should be available to all. ‘We proved that Jerusalem is a better city united than divided,’ Kollek once said in an interview.
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| Posted by:Steve White |