Work on the Rabin mural
Tel Aviv municipality accidentally removes iconic Rabin mural
Residents of Florentine neighborhood discover community installation was to cover up neighborhood's iconic mural depicting former PM Rabin's assassination, raise public outcry causing municipality to apologize, transfer installation to another wall; despite transference, municipality employee arrives to begin covering up mural; artist says 'in shock', municipality purports it was 'honest mistake.'
Residents of the Florentine neighborhood in Tel Aviv discovered Tuesday morning that the iconic painting depicting the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, which for 22 years has towered over Sderot Washington, was finally removed by municipality workers who painted over one of the most conspicuous exhibits in the neighborhood.
On Monday, the municipality covered the mural with a sign, but after public outcry from local residents the sign was removed and the municipality even apologized to residents.
Attempts to save the mural Tuesday morning
“Painting over the mural was done by mistake and we are sorry about it. The municipality will contact the artist, and he expressed his willingness to redo it,” read a statement by the municipality.
The mural as it appeared Monday (R) and then Tuesday (L) (Photo: Adam Kamai)
Toward 8:30am, a municipal vehicle pulled up next to the painting with workers who proceeded to cover it with a lick of grey paint. The workers did not paint the entire building, restricting their work to the painting only.
The painting depicted the the former prime minister’s killer, Yigal Amir, shooting Yitzhak Rabin on the night that shook the nation in 1995.
Many art and graffiti enthusiasts have previously used used the mural as the starting point for tours around the neighborhood—considered one of the most colorful in the city and replete with urban art.
“We are in total shock,” said the artist and social activist Yigal Shtayim who painted the iconic depiction months after the assassination. “The picture really describes the moment of the murder and it irritated some people, because instead of painting Rabin’s face, I chose to describe the most violent and hardest thing that happened to us, the murder itself. That was its significance.”
“The painting over the mural was a genuine mistake and we are sorry about it. When it became known, painting was stopped and the paint was washed from the mural. In addition, the municipality made contact with the artist, Yigal Shtayim, who came to the scene, and expressed his readiness to redo it and gave a list of materials that are needed for it. The materials will be provided on Sunday and the mural will be redone by Monday, while all required assistance is given by the municipality.”
One of the social activists in the neighborhood pointed out that, “The moment that Maya Alkobi, the administrator of our community center, heard that residents had reservations as to covering up the Rabin assassination mural, she immediately organized the project's transference to another wall.”
“This is—more than anything else—a case of lack of forethought, which has now been resolved. It's not about good guys versus bad guys,” she clarified.
Work to remove the mural was nearly done before it was halted
Neighborhood resident Yasmin, who resides on Sderot Washington, added her own take. “As someone who lives here, I was shocked. Who could have thought that removing such a mural, which symbolizes so much for so many, was okay?” she asked incredulously.
The sign intended to cover up the historic mural was an initiative of the Florentine community center, and was to present the neighborhood's unique spirit in work, industry, culture and art using miniatures created by the neighborhood's children in honor of Israel's 70th Independence Day.
The city's municipality said Tuesday that after the people installing the sign received word the graffiti depicted the slain premier's murder, they decided the instillation was to be summarily removed and transferred to another street.
