Bibi Calls Yitzhak Rabin Murder ‘Worst Crime’
The murder of Yitzhak Rabin was “one of the worst crimes of the new age,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“It certainly besmirches the annals of the state and of Zionism. It will be etched in Jewish history along with other traumatic events,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the weekly Cabinet meeting, which opened with a moment of silence for Rabin.
Rabin was the prime minister when he was assassinated on Nov. 5, 1995.
“This murder also obliges us to safeguard Israel’s democracy, to defend freedom of speech and to strongly reject all displays of violence,” Netanyahu said.
Later Sunday, a state service was held on Mount Herzl memorializing Rabin and his wife, Leah.
On Saturday night, some 20,000 people gathered in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to pay tribute to the prime minister’s memory. Israeli youth movements organized the rally, which was held under the banner of “Remembering the murder – fighting for democracy.” It was held at the site where Rabin was shot and killed by right-wing nationalist Yigal Amir.
Among those attending the rally were hundreds of members of the Modern Orthodox movement, and Bnei Akiva Secretary General Danny Hirschberg was a speaker despite opposition from some members. The opposition included the youth of Itamar, who sent Hirschberg a letter decrying his decision and saying that Rabin had wanted to dismantle the West Bank settlement. They also said that Rabin’s policies had led to the death of at least 20 of the community’s residents, including five members of the Fogel family, whose children participated in the youth group.
Saturday night also marked the anniversary of the death of the Jewish foremother Rachel, and more than 70,000 reportedly gathered at Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Opinion In Trump’s war against campus antisemitism, hate the tactics but don’t ignore the problem
-
Yiddish כ׳בענק נאָך די וועלטלעכע ייִדן וואָס האָבן אָפּגעריכט אַ טראַדיציאָנעלן סדר Longing for those secular Jews who led a traditional seder
מײַן פֿעטער יונה האָט נישט געהיט שבת און כּשרות אָבער בײַם אָפּריכטן דעם סדר האָט ער געקלונגען ווי אַ פֿרומער ייִד
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.