Israeli leaders issued calls for reconciliation as the nation marked the second anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
But some observers questioned whether the appeals from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Ehud Barak contained any real conviction.
At state memorial ceremonies held at the Knesset on Wednesday, the date of the assassination on the Hebrew calendar, Netanyahu said he was “extending a hand” in the name of peace and reconciliation.
Mentioning the names of various members of the coalition and opposition, Netanyahu said, “Everyone must join one team. I especially appeal to the close friends of Rabin, my political rivals, who know the pain more deeply than anyone.”
For his part, Barak called on everyone to “join hands” against extremist elements.
“With both arms outstretched, I call on all of us to unite,” said Barak. “We must not let a political assassin’s bullet determine policy.”
Despite Netanyahu’s and Barak’s appeals, there were indications that the political divide in Israel remained as entrenched as ever.
Rabin’s widow, Leah — who has repeatedly accused Netanyahu of taking part in the heated political climate of incitement that preceded her husband’s assassination at the hands of Jewish nationalist Yigal Amir — declined a request from House Speaker Dan Tichon to meet with the prime minister and his wife prior to the Knesset session.
And hours before the session, Knesset member Benny Alon of the far-right Moledet Party said during a heated debate that he had received a death threat from a leftist — and that a bullet had been included with the letter he received.
On Tuesday, a former head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, Ya’acov Perry, told a Knesset committee that the atmosphere of intolerance pervading Israeli society could well lead to another assassination.
Memorials were held Wednesday across Israel, and many were marked by appeals for re-establishing unity.
At a ceremony at Rabin’s graveside on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar, who headed the commission of inquiry into the assassination, said that while it was natural to feel grief and pain at this time, those feelings should also be turned toward learning the lessons of the assassination.
Avi Filosof, Rabin’s son-in-law, said that since the assassination, everything in Israel had changed.
“We now face a choice,” he said. “To enter a civil war, or to make amends.”
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