Death of Shimon Peres: Historical Half-Staff Archive

A U.S. tribute to an Israeli statesman

President Barack Obama's proclamation honored Shimon Peres in his capacity as a former President and Prime Minister of Israel. Its opening identifies the person being remembered; its remaining provisions set out where the United States flag was to be lowered and when that observance would end. This is a short instrument of national mourning, rather than a biography or an account of Peres's political career.

The geographic distinction matters. Although the honoree was an Israeli statesman, this proclamation governs the U.S. flag at the American locations it names. It does not direct the display of Israel's flag or establish rules for Israeli government buildings. The overseas provision names United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities, including military facilities and naval vessels and stations. These are extensions of the American observance, not an order to every institution in the countries where those facilities are located.

Three dates, with different meanings

The formal instrument is dated September 28, 2016. Its stated endpoint is sunset on September 30, 2016. The Federal Register published it on October 3, after that endpoint. Reading the publication date alone would therefore place the observance too late. The dateline in the proclamation and the operative sentence should be read together.

The text specifies sunset rather than a numbered hour or named time zone. Because its scope includes sites throughout the United States and facilities abroad, this archive does not assign one Washington-time or UTC cutoff to every flag. Nor does it replace the explicit September 30 endpoint with an inferred funeral or burial time.

What the directive does—and does not—say

The named domestic locations include the White House, federal public buildings and grounds, military posts, naval stations, and federal naval vessels. The wording should not be broadened into a separate compulsory direction to every private home or business. Readers comparing historic proclamations can use this document to see how an event-specific tribute pairs a defined federal scope with a fixed sunset endpoint.

Source for the proclamation's dates, language, and scope: Federal Register record for Proclamation 9504 of September 28, 2016. The original published pages are available below. These historical dates are separate from the website publication date of this article.

Full official proclamation text

Federal government text. Line wrapping and page-break hyphenation are normalized; page furniture is omitted. The reproduced signature is shown below.

Proclamation 9504 of September 28, 2016 Death of Shimon Peres By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

As a mark of respect for the memory of Shimon Peres, former President and Prime Minister of Israel, I hereby order, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on September 30, 2016. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same period at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first.

Read the original published document

Read the original published pages

Historical document reproduced from the Federal Register. FORTISVEX is an independent publisher, not a government agency. Select an enlarge link to inspect a page at its full image size. The complete selectable proclamation text remains in the article above.

Open the original official PDF or download the source PDF. Your browser may open the PDF before offering a download control.

To read the original PDF file, open the official PDF or download the source document. Your browser may open the file before offering its download control.