Israelis pay final respects to Ariel Sharon Israelis divided on Sharon legacy Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's death evokes mixed sentiments among Israelis. PT1M46S http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-30p1n 620 349 January 13, 2014 - 7:56AM Jerusalem: The body of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lay in state at the Knesset as a small but steady procession of people arrived to pay their respects to the man at once respected and reviled. Under a bleak, grey winter sky, President Shimon Peres laid a wreath in front of Sharon's coffin, which was draped in the blue and white Israeli flag, while other mourners lit candles to remember the former leader. "There are not many men like him left here," said Ayelet Gold, who had brought her five-year-old daughter to the Israeli Parliament to "teach her some of the history of this country." "His history is Israel's history," she said. Israeli President Shimon Peres lays a wreath by the coffin of former prime minister Ariel Sharon at the Knesset. At times it seemed there were more camera crews than citizens in front of Sharon's coffin, which was in place for just one day before a state memorial ceremony at the Knesset on Monday. International guests expected to attend the service include the US Vice President Joe Biden, Middle East Quartet representative and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian State Duma Chairman Sergey Naryshkin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Spanish Home Affairs Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz and Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. The Czech Prime Minister Jiri Rusnok is the only head of state to attend, according to information provided by Israel's Government Press Office. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to Sharon, saying "Arik was, first and foremost, a warrior and a commander, among the Jewish people's greatest generals in the current era and throughout its history. "He was tied to the land; he knew that it had to be defended," Mr Netanyahu said. I believe that he will be remembered in the heart of the Jewish people's forever as one of our most outstanding leaders and most daring commanders. Both Mr Biden and Mr Blair are expected to speak at the memorial service. "I loved this man," said 67-year-old Yaffa Barki of Sharon, who was Prime Minister from 2001 until a catastrophic stroke felled him while he was still in office on January 4, 2006. "He did so much for Israel and all that he did, he did out of love for his country - he was a good soldier and a good man," said Mrs Barki, whose husband fought in the Sinai during the Yom Kippur War in which Sharon famously led Israeli troops across the Suez Canal and broke the Egyptian army offensive. News of Sharon's death dominated the Israeli media, with countless news pages devoted to analysing his military and political life, while the country's major television networks carried live broadcasts from the Knesset memorial. But while Sharon, who remained in a coma for eight years until his death on Saturday, was remembered by many as a bold military man and a decisive political leader, he is viewed as a war criminal across Palestine and throughout the Arab world. In the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in the south of Beirut - the site of the 1982 massacre in which between 800 and 3500 Palestinians were killed by Lebanese Christian militia allied with Israel - there were no tears shed over Sharon's passing. An official Israeli inquiry found Sharon bore some responsibility for the massacre, committed during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and he was forced to resign as defence minister over the findings. "He is a butcher, he is a killer, he is a murderer," Walid, a Palestinian resident of Shatila, told the Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon. "There were many murderers like Sharon, but he stood out, his name was notorious," Abu Ala, Fatah's top representative in the camp, told the Daily Star. His greatest crimes were committed in the camps here. He was a good killer. That is how we will remember him. In the West Bank village of Qibya, where in 1953 Israeli troops led by Sharon killed 69 people, many of them women and children, residents recalled the terrifying night time attack that all but destroyed the tiny town. Hamed Ghethan was just four years old when the raid took place. "Sharon's name reminds me of ... martyrs from my village," Ghethan, now 65, told the Associated Press. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has so far made no comment on Sharon's passing. After the Knesset ceremony, Sharon's body will be taken by military convoy for burial at his ranch in the Negev desert.