29 years ago today, many in the Jewish world were still reeling as they watched assassinated Prime Minister Itzchak Rabin laid to rest on Mt. Herzl.

The previous Saturday night, November 4, 1995, started out with hopefulness.

The Oslo Accords had been signed on September 13, 1993 on the White House lawn. It was a culmination of secret talks, a cycle of negotiation, suspension and mediation that resulted in a document that couldn’t possibly please everyone - but pleased enough to get it done.

The announcement that the Israeli government under Rabin was in the process of reaching a kind of rapprochement with the Palestinians was met with derision by national-religious conservatives, West Bank settlers and Likud opposition politicians alike. With each passing week since the announcement and the eventual signing, the rhetoric ratcheted up - and exploded onto the streets. Rallies organized by the Likud and other right-wing groups featured posters of Rabin dressed as a Nazi SS officer, or hanging from a noose.  In July, 1995, opposition leader (and current PM) Bibi Netanyahu led a mock funeral procession at an anti-Rabin rally. Protestors chanted “Death to Rabin!”  Internal security officials called on Netanyahu to tone down the rhetoric. He refused, claiming that he was not inciting the violence.

After weeks of increasingly wild anti-Rabin street protests, a coalition of left-wing parties and peace groups decided to rally in support of the Prime Minister and peace. They filled Tel Aviv’s Kings Square on Saturday night, November 4.  Over 100,000 people packed the square.  Under the banner of “Yes to Peace, No to Violence,” singers took to the stage to buoy the spirits of the attendees. When Miri Aloni took the stage to sing “Shir L’Shalom” (“A Song for Peace”), she was joined by Prime Minister Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Within minutes after Rabin departed the stage, he was shot and killed by a right-wing extremist.

29 years ago today, we buried Itzchak Rabin - and with him, we buried the hope for peace in Israel-Palestine.
Since the subsequent election in May 1996, the man who reaped the murderous whirlwind has ruled as Israel’s longest serving prime minister. His rule has been defined by the invitation of extremists into his cabinet, three investigations into corruption (and a possible fourth for leaking intelligence to the foreign media), and an attempt to undermine Israel’s judicial system.  And then, of course, there is his response to the Hamas atrocity of October 7.

(Incidentally, last week, the International Criminal Court replaced one of the judges deciding on a prosecution request for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.  The Romanian magistrate asked to leave the three-judge panel on health grounds, and was immediately replaced by a Slovenian ICC judge. This move will delay the decision even more as the new judge will need time to catch up on the filings.  Since the initial request in May for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as well as Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri and Ismail Haniyeh, the Israeli government assassinated the three wanted Hamas leaders.)

There are those that saw Israel’s destruction in Rabin’s vision and justified violence to forestall it.  These same people now preach that even more violence is necessary to protect Israel from threat.

In the months after the assassination, especially after Netanyahu’s electoral victory, graffitists scrawled across walls and billboards:

?הרצחת וגם ירשת - “Would you murder and take possession?”

This was a reference to 1 Kings, when the prophet Elijah’s rebuked King Ahab after he acquired Navot’s vineyard through murder.
Considering the question today seems almost naive.  So much has changed in the last 29 years.  We have become inured to shamelessness and a lack of moral courage in our leaders. The murderer has not only taken possession. Over the past 29 years, he has normalized murder. And his followers don’t seem to mind one bit.

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