Eight IDF major generals, including Deputy Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, Navy chief Ram Rutberg, Air Force commander Amir Eshel, and the heads of the northern and southern commands, serve as pallbearers carrying Sharon’s casket out of its transport car and on to the burial site, where it is lowered into the grave. The former prime minister’s family, closest friends, and top leaders including Peres and Netanyahu, and foreign dignitaries including Joe Biden and some two-dozen others, stand close by.
IDF major generals shoulder the casket of former prime minister Ariel Sharon in the Sycamore Ranch, Sunday, January 13, 2014 (screen capture: Channel 2)
An IDF rabbi cuts small incisions in the shirts of Sharon’s sons, Gilad and Omri, a ceremonial act signaling grief and the start of the seven days of Jewish mourning, or shiva.
The IDF’s top generals then empty prepared sacks of dirt onto the open grave as the IDF’s chief cantor recites traditional burial prayers.
IDF major generals lay former premier Ariel Sharon in his grave in a military burial at Sharon’s western Negev Sycamore Farm, January 13, 2014. (photo credit: screen shot/Channel 2)
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