 |
Thousands of Israelis Rally to Mourn Rabin
Thousands of Israelis Rally to Mourn Rabin
|
Thousands of Israelis gathered on Saturday to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the assassination of warrior-turned-peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin, his legacy scarred by weeks of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.
Gathering at the spot where Rabin was gunned down on November 4, 1995 by an ultra-rightist Jew, Israelis lit candles in his memory while peace songs played in the background for the leader who signed the first Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
But the ceremony was overshadowed by the deaths of at least 171 people, most of them Palestinians, since September 28 in violence that followed a visit by Israel's hawkish Ariel Sharon to a site in Jerusalem that is holy to Muslims and Jews.
"We have gone back five years, more, more, seven years," Rabin's daughter, Dalia, said earlier in the day in a reference to the fighting that threatens the peace process her father launched in the breakthrough 1993 Oslo interim accords.
"We will oppose violence," Rabin said in his final speech at the peace rally where he was shot dead, referring to tensions between Israel's right and left.
Five years on, the young Israelis who filled the square now named for him carried banners declaring ``fighting the violence, marching toward peace'' -- this time in reference to the violence with Israel's peace partners.
A seven-year Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem ended after Rabin sealed the Oslo deal with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The landmark agreement set out terms for limited Palestinian self-rule and steps toward a negotiated final peace.
It won Rabin, Arafat and Shimon Peres, then Israel's foreign minister, the Nobel Peace Prize.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak molded himself on Rabin, pledging to make the slain leader's dreams of peace come true.
Barak offered concessions to Arafat during 15 days of intensive U.S.-brokered peace talks at Camp David in July, but the two sides failed to agree on the most sensitive issues, including the fate of Jerusalem.
Everything Is The Same, But Different
Continuing a tradition that began with the assassination, Israeli youths scrawled graffiti on the walls of a memorial to Rabin built on the spot where he was gunned down.
"Time passes yet everything's the same, nothing moves. It's a shame you're not here. Watch us from above, lead us on the safe path to peace and not to war," one wrote.
Omer Dovev, 17, said he had come to the square in Tel Aviv every year to mourn the assassination.
"It's different this year. In the past we thought we were moving forward. His path was alive. Now it's like we have to start over. We have no choice but peace but it's difficult because we don't have a partner," Dovev said.
Fierce firefights have erupted almost daily between Palestinians and Israeli troops. Some Israelis said the violence had justified their fears that light weapons granted to the Palestinians under the Oslo deal would be used against Israelis.
"Unfortunately, some of the scenarios are coming true and to my sorrow they are coming true after the terrible assassination of Prime Minister Rabin," Ilan Biran, whose army command under Rabin included the West Bank, told Israel Radio.
"The Palestinians have... chosen the path of a war of independence to achieve their goal of an independent state," said Biran, now the director-general of the Defense Ministry.
The Palestinian Ministry of Information called for Israel to take a stronger stand against right-wingers opposed to peace.
"The anniversary... requires all those who truly believe in peace to regain their role in Israeli politics and to work toward reining in extremists," a ministry statement said.
In This Section
|