Last update - 00:00 03/01/2007
Legendary J'lem mayor Teddy Kollek to be buried on Mount Herzl
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, who died Tuesday aged 95, will be buried in his beloved city on Thursday in a state ceremony at Mount Herzl Cemetery.
The flags at the capital's municipal compound were lowered to half-mast on Tuesday to mourn his death, and current mayor Uri Lupolianski issued a special obituary notice in which he wrote: "Teddy was Jerusalem and Jerusalem was Teddy. In his spirit and personality, he symbolized the true unity of Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Israel."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who ousted Kollek from the mayor's office after a 28-year tenure, also issued a special obituary notice for "one of the giants of the state's founding fathers." Kollek, he wrote, "built the new Jerusalem after the Six-Day War. He spread the city's fame throughout the world."
Kollek's coffin will lie in state at the municipal compound on Thursday morning. At 11 A.M., the funeral procession will leave from there for Mount Herzl, where he will be buried in the section reserved for national heroes.
Lupolianski ordered all the city's schools to devote an hour to learning about Kollek's contribution to Jerusalem. The city also opened a virtual condolence book on its Web site.