At Rabin memorial ceremony, Herzog warns state is ‘once again on the edge of an abyss’

Speaking at the state memorial ceremony marking 30 years since the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, President Isaac Herzog warns that the country is experiencing the same levels of incitement and violence.

“Three decades later, we are still seeing the same signs — perhaps even more so: harsh, crude, and coarse language; accusations of treason; poison spreading across social media and the public sphere; violence in every form — physical and verbal,” he says during the ceremony at Mount Herzl.

Herzog says that is is “inconceivable” that 30 years after Rabin’s assassination, “we still face such threatening violence within our society. This is a strategic threat in every sense!”

The president warns against violence directed at public servants, officials in the IDF and Shin Bet, civil servants, prosecutors and judges, as well as against members of the Knesset and the prime minister himself.

“We are seeing rising and dangerous violence throughout the entire public sphere — in the streets, on social networks, in educational institutions, and in crime that is consuming every good part of our society — especially within the Arab community,” Herzog notes.

The president issues a stark warning: “We are once again on the edge of an abyss, and there must be only one path forward: zero tolerance for violence!” He says that the State of Israel “is not a battlefield, but a home. And in a home — we do not shoot. Not with weapons, not with words, not with threats, not with expressions, and not even with hints.”