Summary: Golda Meir, Israel's first female prime minister, died in Jerusalem at age 80. The article details her death from leukemia and related complications, the immediate national and political reactions of grief, and the preliminary plans for her state funeral.
Main Topics Covered:
1. The announcement and circumstances of Golda Meir's death.
2. Her political legacy as Israel's first female prime minister.
3. The national and international response to her passing.
4. Plans for her funeral and tributes.
women’s history month
From 1978: Golda Meir, 80, Dies in Jerusalem; Israelis Acclaim ‘Stalwart Lioness’
Once a teacher in Milwaukee, she climbed the ranks of the Labor Party to become Israel’s first female prime minister.
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This obituary was originally published on Dec. 9, 1978. It is being republished for a package for Women’s History Month.
JERUSALEM, Dec. 8 — Golda Meir, a one‐time teacher in Milwaukee who became Prime Minister of Israel, died this afternoon at the age of 80.
Mrs. Meir had been in Hadassah Hospital since August for treatment of an undisclosed back ailment. Early this week a hospital spokesman said she had also been suffering from liver infection and jaundice.
Hadassah Hospital doctors said later that Mrs. Meir had had leukemia for 12 years, including the years 1969‐74, when she was Prime Minister. The hospital spokesman said that the illness was kept under control until recently, when viral hepatitis developed.
In a Coma in the Last Days
Mrs. Meir was semiconscious in the last days. At the moment of death her two children, a sister and other members of her family, as well as former political aides, were at her bedside.
Death came at 4:30 P.M. The news was broadcast to the nation an hour and a half later, after strict observance of the Sabbath had begun.
There was little public reaction in the largely deserted streets of Jerusalem and other cities. Israelis who heard the news expressed deep grief and said the country had suffered a grave loss.
President Yitzhak Navon conveyed his sympathy and that of the nation to the family. “Your sorrow is that of all Israel,” he said.
Shimon Peres, chairman of the Labor Party, in which Mrs. Meir had long been a leading figure, described her in a statement as “one of the great women in Jewish and world history” and as a “stalwart lioness.” He recalled tributes paid to her by President Anwar el‐Sadat of Egypt during his visit to Israel in November 1977 and added that “the Labor movement is in deep mourning.”
Prime Minister Menachem Begin was informed in Oslo, where he arrived earlier in the day for the presentation on Sunday of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded jointly to him and President Sadat. During the flight to the Norwegian capital in an Israeli military plane, the Prime Minister requested news of Mrs. Meir’s condition by radiotelephone and was informed that she was in her last hours.
Begin to Stay in Oslo for Award
Mr. Begin said he would stay in Oslo to receive the peace prize. Officials here said they expected him to be back in Jerusalem for the funeral, probably on Monday.
The Israeli Cabinet is to meet in special session tomorrow, after the Sabbath, to express the nation’s mourning and to approve arrangements for a state funeral. The meeting was summoned by Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Yadin, who Mrs. Meir’s death as a “tragedy for the entire Jewish people.”
Prayers and Eulogies Sunday
According to an official, the body will probably be taken to the modern building of Parliament, on Jerusalem’s western outskirts. At 10 A.M. Sunday there will be prayers for the dead and eulogies by national figures. Later the body will lie in state until 6 P.M.
No decision appears to have been made tonight as to the burial site. An Israeli who knew Mrs. Meir speculated she might have left instructions to be buried in the cemetery of a kibbutz in the Negev that her daughter, Sara, had helped found.
Delegations from foreign countries and members of the Socialist International are expected to attend the funeral.
To preserve archival articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
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