BICOM

Former-US President Bill Clinton was among the speakers at a rally attended by an estimated 100,000 people in Tel Aviv to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s former-Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.

Rabin, who also served as Defence Minister and IDF Chief of Staff, was shot by a right-wing Jewish extremist at a peace rally in Tel Aviv in 1995. Rabin had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize having agreed the Oslo accords with the Palestinian leadership. Clinton was the US President at the time and captured the Israeli imagination in a touching eulogy at Rabin’s funeral.

Clinton was introduced by Rabin’s daughter Dalia Rabin and enthusiastically welcomed by the crowd at the very square where Rabin was killed. Clinton spoke about Rabin personally, saying “The day he was killed was probably the worst day of my eight years as president.” However, he added a wider message, saying “All of you must decide … how to finish his legacy, for the last chapter must be written by the people he gave his life to save and to nourish.” Clinton urged the Israeli public, “You have to decide that the risks for peace are not as severe as the risks of walking away from it.”

There was also a recorded message from US President Barack Obama, who said “A bullet can take a man’s life, but his spirit and his dream of peace will never die.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin addressed the crowd, saying that the country must “shake off extremism and racism.” He explained that, “Israeli democracy, Israeli society, Israeli hope” were all the target of Rabin’s assassin, but that, “The Jewish and democratic State of Israel… will not become a sacrifice on your altar of violence and fear. Never.”

The rally, under the slogan “Remembering the murder. Fighting for democracy,” was a culmination of a week of commemorative events, including a state ceremony at Rabin’s graveside and a special Knesset plenary session.