Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
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Site of the rally before the assassination: Rabin Square and Tel Aviv City Hall during the day.

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin took place on November 4, 1995, at 21:30, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv.

The assassination

After the rally, Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister and defense minister, walked down the city hall steps towards the open door of his car. Three shots were fired towards Rabin, who had chosen to not wear a bulletproof vest when asked to before the rally.^{citation needed}

The assassin was Yigal Amir, a former Hesder student and Orthodox far-right law student at Bar-Ilan University, who had strenuously opposed Rabin's peace initiative and especially the signing of the Oslo Accords. He was subdued and arrested immediately with the murder weapon, a Beretta 84F .380 ACP caliber semi-automatic pistol. He also shot and slightly wounded Yoram Rubin, a security guard, with a third bullet that missed Rabin.¹² Incidentally, Rubin was also a geography student at Bar-Ilan University at the time.

Rabin was rushed to the Ichilov General Hospital at Tel Aviv Medical Center, where he died from his wounds within 40 minutes. Rabin's bureau chief, Eitan Haber, announced outside the gates of the hospital: "The government of Israel announces in consternation, in great sadness, and in deep sorrow, the death of prime minister and minister of defence Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by an assassin, tonight in Tel Aviv. May his memory be blessed."

In Rabin's pocket was a blood-stained sheet of paper with the words to Shir Lashalom ("Song to Peace"), which ironically dwells on the impossibility of bringing a dead person back to life and therefore the need for peace.

Reactions and funeral

The monument at the site of the assassination: Solomon ibn Gabirol Street between the Tel Aviv City Hall and Gan Ha'ir (in the back). The monument is composed of broken rocks, which represent the political earthquake that the assassination represents.

The assassination of Rabin was a shock to the Israeli public. Rallies and memorials took place near Kings of Israel Square—later renamed Rabin Square in his honor—as well as near Rabin's home, the Knesset building, and the home of the assassin. Many other streets and public buildings around the country were named for Rabin as well.

The funeral of Rabin took place on November 6, the day after the assassination, at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, where Rabin was buried. Hundreds of world leaders, including about 80 heads of state, attended the funeral.³ Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin,⁴ Spanish Prime Minister and European Council President-in-Office Felipe González⁵ acting Israeli Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, ⁶ United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali,⁷ President of the United States Bill Clinton,⁸ King Hussein of Jordan,⁹ Rabin's granddaughter Noa Ben-Artzi Filosof,¹⁰ former director-general of the prime minister's office Shimon Sheves,¹¹ Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,¹² director of the Prime Minister's Bureau Eitan Haber,¹³ and President of Israel Ezer Weizman.¹⁴

Yigal Amir's act was and to some extent still is a great source of embarrassment to the religious Jewish community, initially leading to a wave of soul-searching¹⁵ and denial (such as through the Yitzhak Rabin assassination conspiracy theories).

A national memorial day for Rabin is set on the date of his death according to the Hebrew calendar.

Yitzhak and Leah Rabin's grave on Mount Herzl

Further reading

• Karpin, Michael and Friedman, Ina, Murder in the Name of God - The Plot to Kill Yitzhak Rabin, ISBN 0-8050-5749-8.

References

See also

• Assassinations of Jewish leaders relating to Israel and Zionism

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin

• The Assassination of Rabin, television news report, BBC
• "Israel marks Rabin assassination", BBC, Nov 12, 2005
• "A sombre night in Rabin Square", BBC, Nov 12, 2005
• Could He Have Been Saved? An article by Ronen Bergman in Haaretz
• 10-minute video of Rabin's assassination hosted on Google Video
• Assassination part of the Kempler video on CNN (10 seconds)
• Koenraad Elst on Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination

Coordinates: 32°04′54.8″N 34°46′51.4″E / 32.081889, 34.780944