<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=windows-1255"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman"> </DIV> <DIV> <TABLE class=main cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="99%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=hl1class>Commemoration of the Sixth Anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination: Huge Success </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV> <DIV> <TABLE class=main cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="99%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=timeoclass>Sunday, November 4th, 2001 </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV> <DIV> <TABLE class=main cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="99%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=sourceclass> <DIV>Sergio Yahni/AIC </DIV> <DIV> </DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV> <DIV> <TABLE class=main cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="99%" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD class=bodyclass> <P class=main>An estimated 80,000 people attended the memorial service commemorating the sixth anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. The service took place in the Rabin square, the same square where Rabin was assassinated in November 1996.</P> <P class=main>The Prime Minister's office announced that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not take part in the ceremony. The service's promoters said Thursday night that Sharon had been invited to take part in the ceremony, as were all members of the government and the Knesset. The only national political figure to speak at the ceremony was Rabin's daughter Dalia Rabin-Philosof, Member of the Knesset and deputy minister of security. </P> <P class=main>Sharon was originally scheduled to give a speech at the ceremony, but was banned by the organisers of the service. </P> <P class=main>The organisers attempted to give the service a consensual mainstream appearance. However, this attempt failed due to the massive presence of peace organizations carrying outstanding signs with slogans calling to "End The Occupation" and to divide Jerusalem. </P> <P class=main>Already on Wednesday this week "Peace Now" published an ad stating that "Sharon will not be there but we will". The organizers declared that the Peace Now declaration disturbed the national status-quo on the consensual character of the memorial. </P> <P class=main>Representatives of the Palestinian minority in Israel were not invited to appear in the memorial.</P> <P class=main>The massive nature of the memorial, clearly identified with the Labour party and the Zionist left will not help the political crisis of the Yitzhak Rabin's Labour party, today a member of the Sharon's coalition. As described by the Jerusalem journalist Haim Baram (Kol Hair, 2/11/2001):</P> <P class=main>"The Rabin camp, in the widest sense of the term, has no message, no hope, no leadership, no politics and no morals. The majority of Rabin's comrades belong to the nationalistic coalition which is abusing the Palestinian people, torpedoing all chances for peace and giving Israel a bad name abroad."</P> <P class=main>According to Haim Baram, this is a structural defect of those who are continuing Rabin's legacy. "His disciples fell on the erroneous belief…that it is possible to receive true peace at little cost." </P> <P class=main>Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an extreme right Israeli student, Yigal Amir, on November 4 1996 at the end of a demonstration supporting his politics. Two reasons motivated the assassin: the Oslo process and the fact that Rabin's minority coalition was supported by Arab political parties that provided the government a security net.</P> <P class=main>The Israeli security services (Shabak) are still attempting to prevent the opening of a judicial case against Abishai Raviv. Raviv was a Shabak provocateur within the extreme right wing. According to the accusations he allegedly knew about the plans to assassinate the prime minister but did not report this to the services. According to the Shabak, such a trial would disclose the working methods of the organization. </P> <P class=main> </P> <P class=main> </P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></FONT> <DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Bryan Atinsky<BR>IMC-Israel <BR>English Editorial Coordinator<BR><A href="http://www.indymedia.org.il">http://www.indymedia.org.il</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>