Some 100,000 people joined together in central Tel Aviv on Oct. 31 to pay tribute to slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The demonstration marked the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s assassination by a Jewish extremist incensed by his government’s efforts to reach a peace accord with the Palestinians.
The top-billed speaker, former President Bill Clinton, devoted much of his address to praising Rabin’s dedication to the peace process, and he concluded with a call to finish Rabin’s work.
“The next step will be determined by whether you decide that Yitzhak Rabin was right,” Clinton said. “That you have to share the future with your neighbors, that you have to give their children a chance, that you have to stand for peace, that the risks of peace are not as severe as the risks of walking away from it.”
President Barack Obama struck the same chord in a video address, in which he lauded Rabin for relentlessly pursuing peace.
“Yitzhak Rabin understood the dangers Israel faces, but he also said the Palestinians are not to be ruled over forever by force,” Obama said. “Like a true statesman, he was willing to exhaust every opening, every possibility for peace. In these difficult days, his life, his dream, can inspire us.”
Some viewed Obama’s speech as a thinly veiled jab at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently told lawmakers that Israel would not withdraw from territory in the foreseeable future and would “live forever by the sword.”
Tal Segev, 15, a member of the Scouts youth group holding a Peace Now sign, said he came to the rally “to emphasize that the message won’t be forgotten, the message of peace.”
But Eliad Avreki, 35, one of the few men in the crowd wearing a kippah, said the rally was “not a matter of right or left.” The focus, he said, should be on promoting civil dialogue to prevent extremist acts. A coordinator for the religious Zionist, pro-settlement youth group Bnei Akiva, Avreki said he went to anti-peace process rallies before Rabin’s assassination, but sobbed when he heard about his death.
“I opposed his path,” Avreki said. “But I opposed his death even more.” — jta