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Remember israels jfk { November 9 1997 }

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   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/26331.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/26331.stm

Sunday, November 9, 1997 Published at 13:57 GMT
World

Thousands remember "Israel's JFK"

Thousands of peace activists have attended a rally in Tel Aviv to commemorate the second anniversary of the assassination Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin.

Tens of thousands of Israelis gathered on Saturday night in the same square where the former prime minister was shot dead by a Jewish settler and anti-Arab extremist, Yigal Amir.

Mr Rabin's widow, Leah, told the crowd although her husband had been murdered, it was impossible to kill his memory.

Ehud Barak, the leader of Mr Rabin's Labour Party, now in opposition, called on Israelis to keep the late premier's legacy alive.

Mr Rabin's killing divides Israel right down the middle.

Many Israelis, especially liberal and secular Jews and those from the western Ashkenazim community, see him as a martyr to peace and a leader equal in stature to other assassinated greats such as President John F Kennedy and Mahatma Gandhi.

But many hawkish, conservative Israelis shed no tears for Mr Rabin and even say privately he deserved to die for handing back the Gaza strip and much of the West Bank to the Palestinians, some of whom continue to bomb Israel.

Mr Rabin's fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shimon Peres, lost power in last year's election and the peace process has been struggling ever since.

Israel's Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has found it hard to maintain any sort of relationship with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and, with Jewish settlement continuing apace on the West Bank, the Palestinian leader has in turn found it impossible to restrain the Hamas suicide bombers.

This year's anniversary has been marked by a fresh round of bitter recrimination, with politicians on the right and left blaming each other for what happened on November 4, 1995.

When a government minister, Nathan Scharansky, got up to speak at Saturday's rally, many in the crowd whistled in protest.

They have not forgiven right-wing politicians, and Mr Netanyahu in particular, for allegedly whipping up opposition to the peace process in the months before Mr Rabin died.

The official inquiry into the assassination found there was no conspiracy and the gunman acted alone.

But the former head of Shin Beth, Israel's domestic intelligence service, has confirmed one of Mr Amir's associates, Avivshai Raviv, was one of their informants, codenamed Champagne.

The peace rally in Tel Aviv coincided with clashes around Hebron in which Palestinian demonstrators hurled molotov cocktails at Jewish settlers' homes.

A crowd of 50 Jews responded by throwing stones at Palestinians near the line separating the Jewish quarter from the rest of the city.

A Palestinian police officer was wounded and taken to hospital when police moved in to disperse the Palestinian demonstration.



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