The Israeli parliament held a special session Monday evening in memory of the late prime minister and defense minister Yitzhak Rabin on the 26th anniversary of his assassination.
Rabin was assassinated by far-right extremist Yigal Amir on November 5, 1995. The anniversary of his killing is marked according to the Hebrew calendar.
6 View gallery
Slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's portrait exhibited at the Knesset plenum
(Photo: Knesset)
One by one, Israeli lawmakers and dignitaries took the stand and made their remarks which were rife with political attacks as much as they were dedicated to statesmanship and honoring the memory of the slain prime minister.
The Knesset session came after the official state ceremony in memory of Rabin was held near his gravesite at the Mount Herzl National Cemetery in Jerusalem, with Israeli leaders, as well as many foreign dignitaries and ambassadors in attendance.
One notable absentee, however, was the leader of Israel’s opposition Benjamin Netanyahu who attended the ceremony in recent years while serving as prime minister.
The Likud chairman is not obligated to attend the ceremony according to state protocol as leader of the opposition and his office said that he will speak at the Knesset session in memory of Rabin.
6 View gallery
The Knesset plenum convenes for a special session in memory of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy opened the special session with a minute of silence.
“The three shots fired at Kings of Israel Plaza [where Rabin was assassinated after a peace rally] on the fourth night of November 95 still resonate within the walls of this house and within Israeli society, even 26 years later,” Levy opened his remarks.
Speaker Levy called the assassination "a traumatic event that left a permanent wound in the heart of Israeli democracy that has not healed."
“The trauma and shock of that gloomy night have accompanied every argument and controversy we have known since,” Levy said. ”Something in the innocence of political life in Israel broke that night and was gone forever because since that night on, we know this could happen.”
6 View gallery
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks at a Knesset special session in memory of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
(Photo: TPS)
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a practicing Jew who heads a far-right party, denounced the use of Rabin's memory to vilify Israel's political right and religious population.
“I hope that since the assassination, we have learned how dangerous violence is and we must not silence entire sections of our society, we must not vilify an entire community because one individual committed a crime. Neither the right assassinated Rabin nor the religious. Yigal Amir assassinated Rabin,” Bennett said.
The premier added that there are lines that never should be crossed no matter how righteous one deems their cause. He also said that Israelis must learn to bridge their differences without resorting to violence.
Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid opened his remarks with inflammatory statements against far-right lawmakers in attendance at the session, labeling them Yigal Amir's "ideological heirs."
6 View gallery
Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid speaks at a Knesset special session in memory of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
“Yigal Amir’s ideological heirs are today serving in Israel’s Knesset. Had we not performed the miracle of the ‘change government,’ they would be ministers in the government,” the former news anchor said.
Lapid was interrupted by Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich and Shas Chairman Arye Deri who were ejected from the plenum.
“The last election was a referendum on democracy,” Lapid continued. “On the question of whether we still want to live under democratic rule with the rule of law, or whether we want to move to a populist, authoritarian, extremist and nationalist regime.”
Attacking his opposition as being uninterested in democracy or the unity of the nation, he said that the current political debate in Israel is not between the right and the left, but those "who believe in democracy and those who do not" and those "who want to unite the people against those who want to tear them apart."
6 View gallery
Defense Minister Benny Ganz, Foreign minister Yair Lapid, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Gideon Saar
(Photo: TPS)
Israel's top diplomat further compared some rhetoric heard on the right to incitement that preceded Rabin's assassination in 1995.
“Rabin’s assassination was the assassination of Israeli democracy. In recent years, there has been an attempt to assassinate it through other means,” Lapid continued. “We prevented it at the last minute. Out of commitment, out of patriotism, out of an understanding that what happened can not happen again. And I want to tell the anti-democratic forces among us. We will be here for a long time.”
Opposition Leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a swipe at Lapid for his comments.
“In a democratic regime it is the right and duty of the opposition to sharply criticize the government, but look what happens here. There is one side, it does not matter if it is in the opposition or coalition, that everything it says and does — no matter how extreme — is regarded as symbols of our statehood, democracy and freedom of expression. On the other hand, there is another side that also expresses legitimate positions that represent the majority of the Israeli public but is regarded as dangerous and inciteful.”
6 View gallery
Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a Knesset special session in memory of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)
Netanyahu — who has been accused of stoking the flames of public discourse in the runup to Rabin's assassination and who has had a tense relationship with the slain prime minister's family — further said that some have used Rabin's assassination as a cudgel to beat the Israeli political right on the head for the past 26 years.
“Over the years, I have heard abusive and false claims hurled at the camp I represent and me personally at these events," he said. "But I gritted my teeth, I restrained myself. I have fulfilled my duty to be there as prime minister in accordance with the state protocol. Of course, when I came, they asked why I came, and now that I did not come, they ask why I did not come. There are opposition leaders here who have boycotted other days of remembrance and are not talked about.”
“We treat the late Yitzhak Rabin with deep respect for his many virtues, for his great contribution to Israel’s security and yet we do not hide for a moment the disagreements between us, this is statesmanship.”