ISRAEL: Israeli and foreign dignitaries pay respects to late PM Rabin at a mass memorial rally

Record ID: 214522

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli and foreign dignitaries pay respects to late PM Rabin at a mass memorial rally
  • Date: 13th November 2005
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CROWD SINGER AND ISRAELI OFFICILAS SINGING 'SING FOR PEACE' ON STAGE CROWD SINGING, SLAPPING SINGER AND ISRAELI OFFICIALS SINGING ON STAGE WIDE OF CROWD SINGING
  • Embargoed: 28th November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA2NXLF3350AWWW6K5ZM6XY4NSS
  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday (November 12) to mark the 10th anniversary of the assassination of peacemaker Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, marking Israel's biggest peace rally since its Gaza pullout. Holding signs that read slogans like "the path to peace will never be killed", the crowd sang memorial songs with singers on a stage in Rabin Square, where the late Israeli leader was killed and which has since been the scene of many peace rallies. Israel tightened its security around the city's main square. 1,500 security troops were deployed in and around a main square renamed after Rabin. Rabin was killed in 1995 by an ultranationalist Israeli Jew who opposed his interim peace talks with the Palestinians in 1993, for which the Israeli prime minister received a Nobel Peace Prize along with late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Rabin's murder stunned not just Israelis but the whole world that had pinned its hopes on the former general to get the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians back on track. Violence has worsened since Rabin's death, elevated since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000. Negotiations with the Palestinians are currently stalled due to violence. The demonstration marked the biggest peace rally in Israel since its Gaza pullout on September 12 and a major show of strength by Israel's left, which opposes Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plans to strengthen settlements and wants peace talks to resume. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was joined dozens of foreign dignitaries at the rally. Clinton, who helped broker the 1993 interim peace talks between Rabin and Arafat, has said he thought of the late Israeli leader as a friend. "To stand in solidarity with you and remembering Yitzhak Rabin, the life he lived, the sacrifices he made, the legacy he left and the work he would still wish all of us to do for peace. (CLOSE UP) There has not been a week in the last ten years, not a single week when I have not thought of him and missed him. He is as real to me today as he was in his last day on this earth. I loved him very much and I was in awe of his ability to move from being a soldier to a peace maker, a politician to a statesman," he said. Also in attendance at the Rabin memorial was new Israeli Labour party chief Amir Peretz, who replaced Shimon Peres in a Thursday vote. Peres had Labour join Sharon's coalition to promote the Gaza pullout, a move that angered many leftists. Peres, who shared the Nobel prize with Rabin and Arafat, attended as well, along with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, whose proposed peace deal with the Palestinians in 2000 was rejected by Arafat months before the start of the uprising.
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