Rabin memorial rally called off due to budget shortfall

30 October 2016, 6:44 pm

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For the first time in 21 years, an annual rally in memory of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin will not take place at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, with organizers blaming a budget shortfall.

Organizers say they are NIS 800,000 short of a needed total to put on the Saturday night event, which usually draws tens of thousands of people and is seen as a major event for the peace camp.

Thousands attend a rally marking 20 years since the assassination of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on October 31, 2015. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90) — Thousands attend a rally marking 20 years since the assassination of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on October 31, 2015. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Much of the money is needed to pay for security, according to Haaretz.

“We raised almost the whole amount, we just have a gap that we haven’t managed to close before the deadline,” an organizer tells the paper. “It’s impossible to continue on like this forever. This should have been taken care of long ago.”