Anniversary of Rabin assassination is marked by incitement

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by Yigal Amir at a 1995 rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Oslo Accords. Israelis commemorated the anniversary last week because their calendar is different from ours.

The occasion had been seen by Israeli liberals as an opportunity for soul-searching; but they are a stark minority in Israeli public life, and the event has been marked by some rightwing outbursts: threats to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin for seeking a Palestinian state and a celebration of Amir at a soccer game.

Rivlin said at a rally honoring Rabin that hope in Israel is now “in the crosshairs.” That rally was organized by Peace Now and other left-of-center groups in Tel Aviv Saturday; more than 100,000 came. Two American presidents spoke, but not the Israeli head of government. Bill Clinton was there, Barack Obama appeared on video. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu did not show up.

The Washington Post’s William Booth offered a frank account of rightwing demonstrations surrounding the anniversary:

Recently, fans of Jerusalem’s national soccer team enthusiastically chanted the name of Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, alongside the usual call of “Death to Arabs.”

These days, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is a target. The conservative Likud member is opposed to a Palestinian state but speaks often of the need for peaceful coexistence. He has been branded an Arab-lover by his critics and vilified on social media as a Nazi.

As the Rabin assassination anniversary approached, Rivlin announced that as long as he was president, he would never release Amir, who is serving a life sentence. “May my right hand wither if I ever sign a pardon for that wretched man,” he said.

Last week, Amir’s brother and co-conspirator, Hagai Amir, who was released after serving 16 years, posted on his Facebook page his hope that Rivlin would soon die.

“It’s time for Rivlin and the Zionist state to pass out of existence, just like Sodom for the crimes committed against their own people,” Amir wrote. He was sentenced to brief house arrest and fined for incitement.

“To those who seek to silence, threaten — who clench their fists, create pictures of the SS, or threaten parliamentarians, judges, ministers, or prime ministers — I want to tell you: We’re not afraid of you,” Rivlin said Saturday.

In the Maariv newspaper, the columnist Eyal Levy pointed out the incongruity of Rivlin saying these words while standing behind “armored glass capable of stopping even a terrifying burst from a machine gun.”

The New York Times has downplayed the story lately, though its account of the Saturday rally included a description of Netanyahu’s role in the incitement that led to Rabin’s death.

In the months before the killing, political hardliners branded Rabin a traitor and some extremists called for his death. Critics charged that the climate of incitement inspired Amir to shoot Rabin. In one famous incident, Benjamin Netanyahu, then the opposition leader, addressed a protest in downtown Jerusalem where demonstrators held posters portraying Rabin in an Arab headscarf or Nazi uniform. Saturday’s rally showed clips of that protest as well as other images that vilified Rabin.

The Jerusalem Post quotes Rivlin’s disturbing metaphor for the state of Israeli society at the rally:

“Yitzchak fell in the line of duty. We were – all of us – in the crosshairs; the State of Israel, Israeli democracy, Israeli society, Israeli hope. We all were the target,” Rivlin said.

Rivlin’s office released a transcript of portions of the remarks that included rightwing nationalist statements about Jerusalem and the recent violence there. Rivlin celebrated Rabin for being the general who “liberated” Jerusalem in 1967 and said that Israel was committed to sovereignty over an undivided city.

[Rivlin said,] “It was [Rabin] who united Jerusalem for us, and he, who commanded of us – proponents and opponents of Oslo alike – to safeguard Jerusalem. In 1992, it was Rabin who said at the first session of the 13th Knesset, ‘This government, just as those before it, holds that there is no difference of opinion over the status of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel. The complete and united Jerusalem, always was and always be, the capital of the Jewish people, under the sovereignty of Israel. This government is unequivocal in its belief that Jerusalem is not up for debate’.” The President added, quoting Rabin, and said, “In Israel, there is agreement on one thing – a united Jerusalem as the continued capital of Israel. In our opinion, Jerusalem is not up for debate, and there can be no peace without Jerusalem.’ So said Yitzchak Rabin.”

The President went on to emphasize that specifically during the current period, the issue of keeping Jerusalem united was of high importance. He said, “During these difficult days, when we are being asked to relinquish our control of Jerusalem our capital, when there are those who dare to deny the very link between Zion and Zionism, between the mountain, and the house that stood there, between the people and the very core of their being, at the very time discordant voices try to question our sovereignty, and perhaps harder still, at the time when it seems our own red lines begin to blur and fade in the name of bowing to pragmatism, it seems that specifically now, we must remember and hold high the banner of a united Jerusalem.”

Here’s that Beitar Jerusalem soccer fans story from the Times of Israel last week:

Israel Football Association officials are considering taking disciplinary action against Beitar Jerusalem after a group of its fans were seen chanting slogans praising former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, during a game Tuesday night.

In amateur footage of Beitar’s game against Macabbi Tel Aviv, dozens of the club’s fans clad in the team’s traditional yellow jersey can be seen chanting Amir’s name, incorporated into the club’s fight song.

Video is here.

The soccer club and the country’s sports minister condemned the chant. And there was this disturbing detail:

Beitar Jerusalem is known for its right-wing fan base, and its recent games against Israeli Arab teams have required up to 600 police officers, private security guards and undercover detectives, who have attempted to root out displays of hostility and calls of racist incitement among fans.

Tomorrow night the NY Public Library will be holding an event about the assassination featuring Dan Ephron, author of a new book on the assassination, Killing a King, along with Nancy Updike and Ira Glass. Ephron said recently that the Amir family are not outcasts in Israel– far from it. He also talked about his book with Americans for Peace Now. I have the impression that Ephron‘s book makes the argument that the assassination transformed Israel. The-settlers-won theory.

That Washington Post story suggests that Netanyahu does not think the assassination changed Israel:

At a meeting in Israel’s parliament last week, Netanyahu brushed aside speculation of what would have happened if Rabin had lived. “It’s irrelevant,” the prime minister said. He blamed radical Islam instead for the violence, a movement that has “nothing to do with us.”

Netanyahu said that Israel must control all of the occupied territory “for the foreseeable future.”

In answer to the opposition, Netanyahu said, “You think there is a magic wand here, but I disagree. I’m asked if we will forever live by the sword? Yes.”

Some context. On our site, James North has repeatedly cited the murder of Rabin for daring to offer land for peace and the wide support for his killer as evidence that the two-state solution is a pipedream; Israel is incapable of withdrawing the settlers.

Also on our site, Yossi Gurvitz has described a broader conspiracy to kill Rabin, which he says the Israeli government was incapable of investigating, lest it lead to greater division and violence.

Three people were convicted of direct involvement in Rabin’s assassination: Yigal Amir, his brother Hagai Amir, and Dror ‘Adani, all former Hesder [religious] troops. Three other Hesder soldiers, known to the Amirs, were part of a second part of the Amir’s conspiracy, intended to murder Palestinians: Arik Schwartz, Michael Epstein and Ohad Skornik. They were involved in stealing weapons and explosives from the IDF for this purpose. Schwartz’s father, Dr. Naftali Schwartz, was arrested while trying to get rid of explosives his son has stolen.

A seventh person, Margalit Har-Sheffi, was trying to get Yigal Amir halachaic permission to murder Rabin; the rabbi she turned to, Shlomo Aviner, refused to provide it and was so alarmed – turns out he received several such requests – he wrote a public article titled “The Prime Minister is not an Erev Rav.” [a Jewish leader working against Jewish interests] Har-Sheffi also provided Amir with information about the armory in her settlement, Beit El if memory serves, since he wanted to break in and steal arms. Har-Sheffi was convicted of knowing about Amir’s plans to murder Rabin and keeping silent – the only person in Israel’s history indicted and convicted of failing to report a conspiracy to commit a crime. She claimed she didn’t know he was in earnest, but couldn’t explain her visit to Aviner. She was sentenced for a year and received a hero’s welcome when she was released.

None of the members of the second part of the ring were ever indicted – or, as far as I know, even drummed out of the army. Nobody wanted to know too much. One gunmen could be described as a lone nut; six, coming from the same yeshivas, could not. So the public preferred not to look to deeply. People were seriously concerned about the possibility of a civil war at the time.

Thanks to Allison Deger and Adam Horowitz for some links on this story.

Update: I originally stated that the head of state did not appear at the Tel Aviv rally. Wrong. Netanyahu is the head of the government; Reuven Rivlin is the head of state. Thanks to Scott Roth for correcting me.