More than 100,000 people rallied in memory of Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv.
A demonstration marking 12 years since the former Israeli prime minister’s assassination drew as many as 150,000 people to Rabin Square on Saturday night, an unusually large number for the annual event.
Commentators suggested that public interest in preserving Rabin’s legacy has been boosted by the prospect of a resumption in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that he launched in the early 1990s.
“Rabin’s way will prevail,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the crowd.
Many Israeli left-wingers also want to counteract the spread of sympathy for Rabin’s imprisoned assassin, Yigal Amir. Polls show that a growing number of rightists would seek clemency for Amir who, though sentenced to stay behind bars for life, has had conjugal visits and started a family.
Amir’s first child, a son, was to be circumcised in a jailhouse ceremony Sunday. The assassin earlier failed to win Supreme Court permission to conduct the circumcision with relatives outside.
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