BICOM

Tens of thousands gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Rabin, who also served as Defence Minister and IDF Chief of Staff, was shot by a right-wing extremist at a peace rally in Tel Aviv in 1995. Rabin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after agreeing the Oslo accords with the Palestinian leadership.

A memorial rally has taken place at the square in which Rabin was shot every year since the murder. This year, the organising committee said it did not have the necessary funds to coordinate the event. The Zionist Union, the successor to the Labour Party which Rabin led, funded and organised Saturday’s event, which took on a more political tone than previous years.

Zionist Union leader Issac Herzog told the crowd: “We will not light candles tonight. Tonight we will not sing songs of sadness, this is not an evening for speeches of grief. Tonight we go to war for democracy.”He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having “declared war on democracy” and that “the time for a unity government is over”. Media speculation that Herzog would join a Netanyahu-led national unity government had been fed by ongoing talks between the two leaders.

Expanding on the theme, senior Zionist Union leader and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said: “We came here tonight to prevent the shaming and persecution of journalists, officers and judges.” Addressing Netanyahu, she said: “You can call us what you like… but no one will teach us what it means to be Zionists.”

Nazareth Mayor Ali Salam delivered a message of hope. He told the rally: “We are so different from one another but we are all people and must walk Rabin’s path of peace and realise his vision,” adding “after decades of war and hatred, we deserve to live in love and peace. We must put an end to war, before war puts an end to our lives.”