1995 – The Assassination of the Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin
Shalom Haver
The faction supporting the peace process that cautiously and hopefully accompanied the discussions’ progress was horrified by the intensity of the attack by those opposing the agreements and decided that the time had come to give expression to the broad public support for the government’s moves.
A November 4, 1995 rally drew crowds to the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. The demonstrators expressed their support for the agreements and Rabin’s leadership. Although initially, Rabin showed little enthusiasm for a support rally, he agreed to the organizers’ invitation to deliver a speech from the rally’s stage. In the presence of the cheering masses, he sensed that he enjoyed a tremendous amount of grassroots support. At the end of the rally, on his way back to his car, a Jewish assassin fired three bullets into his back.
The Prime Minister of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated.
On Saturday evening, November 4, 1995, 12 Heshvan 5756, Yitzhak Rabin arrived at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv to participate in a mass rally that bore the slogan “Yes to Peace, No to Violence.”
At the end of a heartwarming and enthusiastic rally in which the masses demonstrated their faith and love for him, Yitzhak Rabin was shot on his way to a waiting vehicle and critically wounded by a Jewish assassin.
Yitzhak Rabin died at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) at 23:14 after the doctors’ efforts to save him were of no avail.
Tel Aviv – immediately after the assassination, many Israelis began to flow toward the Kings of Israel Square. Young people and adults, religious and secular, left and right-wing, residents of the country’s center and the periphery, veteran Israels and new immigrants, Jews and Arabs all gathered to mourn in the square, light a candle, paint wall graffiti, sing songs, and shed a tear. A week after the assassination, the citizens gave the square its current name, “Rabin Square.” At the end of that same week, the City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa made this decision official.
Jerusalem – the day following the assassination, Yitzhak Rabin’s casket was placed in front of the Knesset building. From that Sunday morning until his funeral on Monday afternoon, tens of thousands of citizens came to Jerusalem to pay their respects and say goodbye.
