Israeli left-wing leader dies at 86

Shulamit Aloni, Israel's former education minister and prominent civil right figure, died on Friday morning at the age of 85. A statement released by her family said Aloni died of a lung disease at her home in Kfar Shmaryahu, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Born in Tel Aviv, the three-decade veteran member of the Knesset (parliament) pioneered the protection of civil rights in Israeli law, promoting many bills on equal rights for women, gays and other minorities. In the 1980s, when contacts with members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) were still outlawed, Aloni called on ending the occupation and supported the formation of a Palestinian state on the lands seized by Israel in the 1967 war. In the 1992 elections, she led the newly formed Meretz, an alliance of three left-wing parties, to win 12 sits in the Knesset. Aloni became a senior member in the late Yitzhak Rabin government, and provided crucial support for the moves that led to the Oslo Accords. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an ultranationalist who opposed his peace initiative. After her retirement in 1996, Aloni continued to volunteer in many pro-peace activities. Setting past differences aside, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Friday that "despite our profound disagreements we had, I always valued her contribution to the Israeli public and her determination to struggle for her beliefs."