Rabin’s Legacy Fades as Israelis Lose Interest in Peace Talks
Lack of participation in Yitzhak Rabin's 18th memorial ceremony testifies to the ongoing loss of interest by the Israeli public in the Palestinian issue, unless a new agreement is presented.
The transformation of Israel's main memorial event in honor of Yitzhak Rabin into a youth movement event titled “Remembering the Assassination, Preserving Democracy” is a perfect representation of the place Rabin's legacy has among the Israeli public 18 years after his assassination (Nov. 4, 1995).
Some 35,000 people gathered in Rabin Square, in the center of Tel Aviv, for the event on the night of Oct. 12. Most were youth movement members, both right and left wing. In other words, a large number of the attendees were not even born at the time of the assassination. Inevitably, they became the subject of intense discussion during current-event TV and radio shows the next morning. Studio discussions dealt with the general question of what happened to Rabin's legacy, the relative dearth of participants as compared with previous years and the reason why senior political figures and the general public alike were absent from this year's memorial, especially when compared with years past.
