From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Golan accuses Netanyahu of paving way for ‘next Yigal Amir’ on anniversary of Rabin assassination
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAriela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
Democrats chairman Yair Golan accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of creating the conditions for another political assassination, as Israel marks 31 years since the murder of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
“Horrifyingly, 31 years after Rabin’s assassination, the same inciting prime minister is today creating the conditions for the next Yigal Amir,” Golan says during a wreath-laying ceremony at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, referring to the Jewish extremist who assassinated Rabin on November 4, 1995.
“We will rise again and rebuild Israel in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence,” he adds, pledging to build a “free, Jewish, egalitarian and democratic state.”
Golan himself has faced a wave of death threats in recent months, prompting his party to petition the High Court of Justice for state-provided security. The petition cited dozens of threats against him and his family, including calls for him to take “a bullet to the head” and for his family to be hanged.
Israel held its official memorial ceremony commemorating the assassination of Rabin according to its Hebrew calendar date at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery, which Netanyahu did not attend.
Netanyahu has long faced accusations of contributing to the incitement preceding Rabin’s assassination, including by holding campaign rallies where demonstrators loudly chanted “Death to Rabin” and burned effigies of the then-prime minister in the months leading up to his assassination. Netanyahu has always denied any responsibility for the incitement that led to the murder.
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