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How political struggles are blurring Israel's national memory

Israel's love for its assassinated heroes is proving fickle, with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s legacy of peace diminishing by the year while the right builds up that of far-right tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi.
Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (2nd L), Defence Minister Shimon Peres and Security Advisor Ariel Sharon (R) walk together during a visit to an army base in the Golan Heights in this file picture taken December 11, 1975 and released by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO). REUTERS/Yaacov Sa'ar/GPO/Handout (POLITICS) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. ISRAEL OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN ISRAEL. BLACK AND WHITE ONLY - RTR2UFU7
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Within the space of a few days, Israel marked the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi and the 21st anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Both men, each a former senior military officer, have official memorial days to honor them. Both have their names on Israeli roads and city streets, and Israeli children study the legacy each left behind. But they are separated by an ideological, moral and political divide — the growing polarization tearing apart Israeli society.

Knesset members of the center-left Zionist Camp and leftist Meretz boycotted the special Knesset session memorializing Ze’evi, who was nicknamed “Gandhi.” Absent funding, the public memorial rally for Rabin held every year in Tel Aviv was canceled. “Our enemies targeted Gandhi precisely because of his ideological intensity, precisely because of his fervor, precisely because of the path he chose on this earth,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the official Nov. 1 memorial ceremony on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl. The exact same things can be said about Rabin.

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