Jordan-born Yitzhak Rabin to join IDF
18-year-old Jordanian-Israeli, named after assassinated prime minister, gains citizenship after lengthy battle
Once again, Yitzhak Rabin is being drafted into the Israeli army.
Eighteen-year-old Yitzhak Rabin Namsy, born in Jordan and named following his namesake’s assassination on November 4, 1995, was granted citizenship after 16 years in Israel, Maariv reported Wednesday.
Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar flew down to Namsy’s Eilat home to deliver his ID card in person earlier this week, the paper reported.
The move followed a lengthy legal battle for citizenship, sought so Namsy could join the Israel Defense Forces. Four months ago, his mother Miriam sought the help of an attorney, Naomi Gonen, in her son’s attempt to deal with the bureaucracy of becoming a citizen.
Namsy and his mother have fought for permanent residency and citizenship since fleeing Jordan in 1998. When Namsy’s anticipated military induction date approached he was not surprised when he didn’t receive a draft notice, so he decided to go out and fight for his right to serve the country as a combat soldier.
“I want to become an officer [in the army], and continue in the path of Yitzhak Rabin, may his memory be blessed,” Namsy told an interviewer in November. “I want to give back to the state in a way that would make Yitzhak [Rabin] … proud of me. I don’t understand what the problem is here.”
Yitzhak Rabin served two terms as Israel’s prime minister, from 1974 to 1977, and from 1992 until his death at the hands of an assassin in 1995. He is noted for serving as IDF chief of staff during the 1967 Six Day War, signing the Oslo Accords with the PLO in 1993, and reaching to a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994.
The decision Namsy’s parents made to call him Yitzhak Rabin was received poorly by the Jordanian media and the family’s neighbors, and the family was forced to flee when he was still a baby. They have been living in exile in Israel since.
