Ayalon Highway
Ayalon HighwayFlash 90

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) is considering renaming one of Israel’s busiest highways after former President Shimon Peres, reports on Sunday said.

Peres’s family approached Katz and requested that the Ayalon Highway (Netivei Ayalon), the major freeway in Gush Dan which connects all of the major highways leading to Tel Aviv, be renamed Peres Highway (Netivei Peres) after the president who passed away at age 93 last week.

The highway’s current name is due to the fact that part of its route is along the Ayalon River.

The Transportation Ministry confirmed that Peres’s family made the request when Katz visited the family during the shiva.

Katz promised that he would consider the idea and meet with the family after Rosh Hashanah.

Peres served as Transportation Minister in the early 1970s. He also conceived a plan to divert the Ayalon River through Jaffa in order to allow for another railway track for Israel Railways to use.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)