Israelis remember Rabin, but many reject his legacy
Educators, especially within the national-religious sector, debate whether Rabin Memorial Day should be dedicated to his political legacy or to tolerance and coexistence.
As terrorists undertook another deadly hit-and-run attack in Jerusalem on Nov. 5, Israeli schools marked the 19th anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. A memorandum by the Ministry of Education's general director noted that the day “provides an opportunity to discuss the importance of tolerance, understanding and cooperation between all sectors of society.” But following this, lesson plans distributed to principals and teachers were sharply criticized for failing to deal with the assassination itself, the assassin's identify and the environment that led to the assassination, focusing instead on some amorphous concept of “tolerance” and the figure of Rabin as an “Israeli patriot.”
Dealing with the issue of tolerance is especially relevant in Israel in 2014, with some people in an uproar over the so-called Rabin festival and even expressing a modicum of support for the assassin, Yigal Amir. A survey conducted by the Mako news website found that some 50% of right-wing voters are not sure that Amir assassinated Rabin, and that 14% of the public believes that he should be released from prison.
“Some parents are opposed to our educational activity,” said Shimon Avichezer, principal of the mixed secular-religious school Keshet. On this day, its eighth-grade class participated in a special activity at the joint Jewish-Arab school Hand in Hand. “One mother told us that it would be more important to describe what the Palestinians are doing to us,” said Avichezer.
“Obviously we don’t have parents like that,” said Arik Spaorta, principal of Hand in Hand.
