U.S. President Barack Obama Addresses the 14th Memorial Day Rally
U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the 14th Memorial Day Rally in Kikar Rabin Saturday, November 7, 2009. Once again this year, thousands filled Rabin Square in Tel Aviv and thousands more watched from their television sets as Israeli leaders and artists commemorated the slain Prime Minister.
In his video message to the crowd, President Obama affirmed, “America’s bonds with our Israeli ally are unbreakable. We will never waver in defense of Israeli security. We will never loose sight of our shared purpose: a just and lasting peace between Israel, Palestine and the Arab world; one that respects the dignity and security of every human being.”
In remembering Rabin, he said, “Tonight, Yitzhak Rabin rests among the heroes of Mount Herzl. Tonight he speaks to us once again as we recall the poem he once invoked, the fallen soldier's plea to those who survived: "We leave you our deaths, give them their meaning. That terrible night in November Yitzhak left us with his death. Now it is up to us, the living, to carry on its meaning.”
Click on President Obama for full video message
In her address to the audience, Dalia Rabin shared, “I do not know who among you here know that every year, the dilemma arises whether to hold the rally. Every year, standing on this stage looking out among the mass of people filling the square, I know the answer: it is written on the faces of the children of the youth movements, just like the children who lit the candles in 1995 that today are the young couples and families present; it is the members of his (Rabin’s) political camp; but mostly, it is the presence of the general Israeli population, his friends and ours who miss him and stand here to say ‘we remember!’”
Photographer: Muki Schwartz
President Shimon Peres, speaking to the crowd, said, “Three shots that caused Rabin’s death were meant to kill hope. Friends who stand here, you are the pillar of fire in the peace camp. I turn to you and ask: don’t give up, demand peace. This is the spirit of your generation.”
On a personal note, Minister of Defense Ehud Barak shared, “Friend, you are missed. You were my commander on the battlefields, you are my General on the path to peace.”
Also addressing the rally were Opposition Leader and Member of Knesset Tzipi Livni, Minister of Education Gideon Sa’ar, and former Minister Ran Cohen as well as peformances by Miri Mesika, Meital Trabelsi, Tzvika Pik, Ahinoam Nini, Koby Aflala, Boaz Mauda, Ovadia Hamama and the Brothers, Hadag Nahas, Miri Aloni and the Youth Movement.
Photographer: Muki Schwartz