At Rabin commemoration event, Labor chief vows to continue his ‘way of truth’

At a commemoration event held by the Labor party in Tel Aviv yesterday evening to mark 26 years since the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, current party leader Merav Michaeli said the party was committed to “Rabin’s way,” which she asserted was “truth. Simply the truth. To tell the people the truth. To tell the society and the State of Israel what is required [for peace], what must be done, even if it is difficult. Not to blur or to lie. To tell the truth.”

Former minister Avraham Shochat, who served as finance minister in Rabin’s government at the time of the murder, said Israeli society had not learned from the assassination.

“Is Israeli society more tolerant today than it was then? Of course not,” he said. “Is there still the danger of a political assassination in Israel today? Of course there is. Is there still the danger that an Israeli public servant will be killed for doing their job? Of course there is. Is the public discourse in the Knesset, in the media, on the streets and at demonstrations more tolerant and less violent? Of course not.

Labor party leader Merav Michaeli speaks at a party commemoration event in Tel Aviv for Yitzhak Rabin, 26 years after his assassination (Courtesy)

“On the memorial day of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination and throughout the year, we must fight for those very things that were the headlines of [the rally at which Rabin was killed] 26 years ago. That fight must carry on.”

The 1995 demonstration was held under the banner “Yes to peace, no to violence.”