Former Israeli president Katzir dies

May 30, 2009, 20:13 GMT

Tel Aviv - Ephraim Katzir, a world-renowed biochemist and physicist who served as Israel's fourth president, died Saturday night at his home in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv. He was 93 years old.

Katzir was elected to the largely ceremonial presidency in 1973 as the candidate of the ruling Labour Party. The highlight of his five- year term was the trip to Jerusalem of Anwar Sadat, the first open visit to Israel by an Arab head of state, which paved the way for the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of March 1979.

Katzir's term saw the outbreak of the 1973 October war. He declined to serve as second term as president and returned to private life.

Born Ephraim Katchalski in 1916 in Kiev, Katzir immigrated to pre- state Israel with his family at age 6. He studied biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received his doctorate in 1941.

He was one of the founders in 1949 of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, and headed its biophysics department. He was awarded the Israel Prize, the country's highest civilian honour, in 1959, and in 1996 became the first Israeli to be invited to join the American Academy of Sciences.

Katzir died on the anniversary of the death of his brother Aharon, also a scientist, who was killed in a terrorist attack on Ben Gurion (Lod) Airport on May 30, 1972.