At a ceremony marking the 16th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli President Shimon Peres said most Israelis accept Rabin’s stance on two states for two peoples.
Peres was among the speakers Nov. 9 at the official national memorial service at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem.
“The two-states-for-two-people solution is a necessary truth,” Peres said at the ceremony. “It’s the Israeli government’s stand, which is supported by most Israeli citizens.”
Also Nov. 9, during a special Knesset session in memory of the slain prime minister, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin decried what he termed Jewish terrorism.
“Rabin’s assassination carries two messages on democracy: We must have zero tolerance for political violence, and at the same time, we must avoid demonization of political groups and minorities. We must avoid gross and negligent generalizations, as those who opposed [the Oslo Accords] faced after the murder,” Rivlin said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The annual gathering in memory of Rabin, held each year in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, where he was gunned down during a peace rally in November 1995, is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 12. — jta