Michele Chabin

Special for USA TODAY

JERUSALEM — World leaders heaped praise on the life, legacy and vision of former Israeli president Shimon Peres Friday as his body was laid to rest during a state funeral attended by President Obama, former president Bill Clinton, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and dignitaries from 80 nations.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered one of the eulogies, saying: "He was a great man of Israel. He was a great man of the world. Israel grieves for him. The world grieves for him." Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, who succeeded Peres as president in 2014, said "you were not only a man of vision, you were a man of deeds."

Peres won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to forge a lasting peace with the Palestinians. He died Wednesday at age 93, two weeks after suffering a stroke. He is considered the last of Israel’s founding fathers and was buried in Har Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery, where many of Israel’s former leaders are also buried.

Obama and Clinton spoke during the ceremony, as requested by the Peres family, reflecting the warm ties he had with presidents from the United States.

Former Israeli president Shimon Peres remembered as hawk and dreamer

In his address, Obama saluted the presence of Abbas, saying it was a "gesture and reminder to the unfinished business of peace." He then went on to chronicle Peres’ youth in Poland, where members of his family were murdered in the Holocaust, and his later role as an elder statesman.

Peres "wasn't naîve," Obama said. "He understood that true security can be only through peace with your neighbors." He said Peres showed that justice and hope are at the heart of the Zionist ideal. He concluded with the words: "Thank you so much, dear friend," in Hebrew.

Clinton said Peres "imagined all the things the rest of us could do. He started off life as Israel's brightest student, became its best teacher, and ended up its biggest dreamer." Clinton spoke his words in the same cemetery where 21 years ago he bade an emotional farewell to assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Peres was a onetime political hawk who developed Israel’s military industry. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for the negotiations leading to the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Peace Accords. He shared the prize with Rabin and the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

More than 7,500 police were deployed for the two-day memorial that began Thursday. And Israel Police Chief Roni Alsheich said the government went to “unprecedented” lengths to secure the city for Friday's funeral. "It's a huge challenge in regards to security, traffic, public order," he said.

Much of Jerusalem was closed to traffic Friday, the day Jews traditionally prepare for the Sabbath that begins at sundown. The disruptions were even tougher because the Rosh Hashanah holiday begins Sunday night. Several schools around the city decided not to open.

An estimated 50,000 people paid their respects Thursday to Peres as his body lay in state for public viewing at the nation's parliament.

In predominantly Arab East Jerusalem on Friday, some Palestinian residents accused Peres of destroying Palestinian hopes for sovereignty while others remembered him as a peacemaker.

"It’s clear that Arabs cannot respect him because he was one of Israel’s leaders and stole Palestinian land," said Fawzi Rastero, 27, as he took orders in a restaurant in Jerusalem's Old City. "He was one of the people who built Israel and he did it on the back of the Palestinian people."

Older Palestinians who still savor the hope they felt when Peres, Rabin and Arafat signed the peace accords on the White House lawn in 1993 had kinder memories.

"Peres was a good man, a man of peace and a leader for his people," said Nassar Nassar, 59, who was selling a popular type of Palestinian bread from a cart.

Nassar said the huge turnout of dignitaries for Peres' funeral demonstrated his world standing, and said he was "proud that Abbas decided to attend and bring a delegation to the funeral,” despite a widespread boycott of Israel in most of the Arab world.

Sami Baranki and Isaac Nusseibeh, both 65, watched the funeral on an old TV in their shop. They expressed admiration for all Peres did to turn Israel into a thriving country, even though they view Israel as an occupier.

"He was a good man," Baranki said. "He worked night and day toward peace, along with Rabin. He was brave and wise at the same time. No one can deny this."

In West Jerusalem, where the population is overwhelmingly Jewish, the streets were mostly empty.

"People are at home watching the funeral or were scared away by reports of street closures,” said Natalie Aronchik, 46, who was watching the funeral on one of the many TVs in her electronics store. Aronchik said her political views are much more right-wing than Peres’ but insisted "you don’t have to agree with a person to respect him."

Aronchik said that since following the coverage of Peres' death she has been struck by one thing: "They showed picture after picture and in every one of them he was smiling. He treated everyone as an equal. He did everything with his heart."

Many Palestinians will not remember Shimon Peres as a man of peace