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Rabin square, Tel Aviv, November 12, 2005. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners November 12, 2005 |
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Israelis packed the Tel Aviv square where Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated 10 years ago to mourn the former prime minister and to express hopes that his memory would spur new efforts to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Rabin's killing stunned the country a decade ago, revealing the depth of Israel's internal conflicts and badly damaging dreams of peace.
Those at the memorial rally Saturday sang songs of peace, held candles and waved Israeli flags as they remembered Rabin, who won a Noble Peace Prize for signing the Oslo interim peace accords with the Palestinians, as a strong leader who loved his people and made the ultimate sacrifice for peace.
"I loved him very much, and I was in awe of his ability to move from being a soldier to being a peacemaker, a politician to a statesman," said former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who forged a deep bond with the Israeli leader as he sought to broker Mideast peace.
"If he were here, he would say, 'There is enough of all this missing. If you really think I lived a good life, if you think I made a noble sacrifice in death, than for goodness sakes take up my work and see it through to the end,"' Clinton said.
Clinton ended his speech by saying "Shalom Haver," Hebrew for "Goodbye friend," the same words he famously used to bid farewell to Rabin at the Israeli leader's funeral.
During the memorial, images of Rabin played on a huge television screen towering over the very square where the premier addressed a peace rally a decade ago, minutes before he was killed.
"I stood here with him exactly 10 years ago. I was able to see what he saw, you wonderful people, you young people jumped into that pool there, cheering 'Long live peace, long live Yitzhak.' He was moved to the depths of his soul by that love and support." said Vice Premier Shimon Peres, who shared the Nobel Prize with Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"I'm calling on you, get into political life and with your strength carry the load of peace for the state of Israel," Peres said. "Peace is in your hands."
Rabin was shot and killed as he left the peace rally here on Nov. 4, 1995. Yigal Amir, an extremist Jew who considered Rabin a traitor for making concessions to the Palestinians, was convicted of the crime. Since the killing, relations with the Palestinians steeply deteriorated, finally collapsing in a wave of violence that began more than five years ago and left the peace camp in tatters.
Though violence has significantly decreased over the past year, efforts to revive peace talks have faltered.
Amir Peretz, the new leader of Rabin's Labor Party, said Rabin's sacrifice had not been in vain.
"The way of Oslo is still alive and well. The way of Oslo is still the path to peace," he said.
Even those from the other side of the political spectrum came to pay respects.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, from the hawkish Likud Party, called Rabin a "father, teacher, friend" and denounced the use of violence against political opponents.
Organizers said 200,000 people attended the rally in the downtown plaza, now named Rabin Square. The gathering was held two days before the anniversary of Rabin's death on the Jewish calendar. According to ynet, the police estimated the rally size at 70,000.
Security at the rally Saturday was tight, with 1,500 police and security personnel deployed out of fear that Palestinians or ultranationalist Jews would make the rally the target of a terror attack, police said. No violent incidents were reported.
Many at the memorial had been at the peace rally 10 years before.
Charles Abelsohn, 63, said he can still picture standing in the square and watching Rabin address the crowd.
"This is not just the (memorial) for a man but also for a direction," he said. "By being here tonight, it will re-energize the peace process."
Many others were teenage members of dovish youth movements who had participated in seminars about Rabin's legacy before the memorial.
"Rabin stood for democracy and peace," said Tomer Ben Nun, 15. "I came here because I don't want to forget."
The memorial ended the same way the previous peace rally did, with the same peace activists and political leaders who were there a decade gathering on the stage to sing "The Peace Song." Only Rabin was missing.
The AP contributed to this report.
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