Thousands rally for 20th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination

As is often the case after leaders pass away, many have laid claim to Rabin’s legacy, including J Street and Peace Now.

A poisonous rivalry has since emerged between Israel’s liberal and conservative camps, tracking fault lines in Israeli society. We hear them louder than ever: demanding retaliation and repression, insisting on the futility of pursuing peace, spurning hope while elevating fear and hatred. “But it is not really so”, he said. I had known him for many years, since he was the editorial writer of al-Quds, the popular Palestinian daily, and used to brief Israeli reporters on Palestinian politics while smoking on the steps of al-Quds’ East Jerusalem office.

The two sides had started forging their reconciliation amid a realisation by Rabin that the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza could not be ended by military force, and a desire by Yasser Arafat to break out of the isolation that plagued the Palestinian Liberation Organisation for backing Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the first Gulf War. But this time, sleep did not come easily to Rabin. By making this decision, Mr Rabin squandered a concurrence of factors that would not return, Mr Beilin says.

His dreams of peace seemed awfully close to being real.

One tragic lesson was that there was no longer a distinction between character assassination and assassination. Killing Abraham Lincoln didn’t bring back slavery and killing Martin Luther King didn’t stop the civil rights movement.

By the time he returned to the premiership in 1992, Rabin had been in politics 18 years, half of them in government.

The event commemorated the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s death on November 4, 1995, when he was shot by Jewish extremist Yigal Amir, in the same square that hosts the yearly memorial. He is serving a life sentence. AFYR provides support to educational programs on Rabin’s legacy and labor-related initiatives. Critics charged that the climate of incitement inspired Amir to shoot Rabin. Netanyahu has said he did not see the posters at such rallies.

The toxic atmosphere is explored in Israeli director Amos Gitai’s latest film: “Rabin: The Last Day”.

Standing in the same spot where their leader was killed, the crowd of thousands waved flags and gathered to rededicate themselves to an Israel governed by rule of law, not violence.

“Amir’s Facebook post said Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and the “Zionist state” would soon depart from this world”, comparing them to Sodom, the city destroyed by God in this week’s Torah portion. Despite extensive evidence that Rabin died of gunshots fired by Israeli Yigal Amir including Amirs confession a third of Israelis do not believe he is guilty.

Rabin was “Mr Security”, whose determination to deal with terrorism was beyond doubt. “In Rabin’s period there were fierce disagreements, but there was hope and there was a sense that something could be done”.

Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert both made offers that Israelis – as well as a few mediators – saw as far-reaching. But these were either rebuffed or ignored by Palestinians and neither had quite the gravitas of Rabin. Palestinians in their apparent desperation and Israelis in their apparent determination are deepening the conflict. It was unlike him to enter into an agreement that would put an element of Israel’s security into the hands of anyone else, much less into the hands of the Palestinians and Arafat.

Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, called the assassination an assault on Israeli democracy. He said recent attacks against Arabs, soldiers and the fatal stabbing of a teenage girl at a Gay Pride parade were symptoms of disdain for freedom of expression, equality and respect for others.

I knew if Im going to do two or three years in the army I cant just sit and be a clerk, a nurse or a guide, she said. “There is nothing left of Rabin”, he told The Associated Press.

Rabin’s assassination and Benjamin Netanyahu’s ascent to power in May 1996 brought an end to these policies and to the new strategic direction that Israel had embarked upon. And the only solution that doesnt involve endless bloodshed is two states. Jewish settlement of the West Bank continues. I can’t say I trust the Palestinian “leadership” enough to think that it would have invested sincerely in peace. “I have no other country and my country has changed”.