Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was remembered last night in a memorial service held by students in Red Square. Sponsored by the Georgetown Israeli Alliance, the event, which commemorated the fifth anniversary of his assassination, also allowed students the opportunity to reflect on the turmoil experienced in the Middle East in recent years.
“Rabin was a leading role player in moving Israel to peace, and this event was organized to commemorate his contributions,” said David Gold (MSB ’04), co-president of the Georgetown Israeli Alliance. “He was the first to talk about Syrian peace and also a treaty with Jordan and Palestine.”
During the memorial service, mourners lit candles in front of a poster of Rabin as students read excerpts from his biography and the speech he gave at the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles in Washington in September 1993. After listening to the song Rabin sang to a crowd at the peace really just before his death, Senior Jewish Chaplain Harold White led the group in traditional Jewish prayers. The ceremony concluded with the singing of the Israeli national anthem.
Gold said he hoped the ceremony would draw students’ attention to the immediacy of the situations in the Middle East.
“It’s important to care about Israel’s future because Israel is not going anywhere, and Palestine is not leaving either,” he said. “Like Rabin said, there is a time for war and a time for peace . it’s now that time for peace.”
According to Gold, Rabin is remembered particularly for negotiating a peace settlement with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, with whom he shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. During his lifetime, Rabin also served as a military leader, United Nations ambassador and Israel’s chief of state. Rabin was assassinated on Nov. 4, 1995 leaving a peace rally in Tel Aviv’s King Square by a Jewish extremist.
In early October 2000, Georgetown students held a vigil to mourn the deaths of the men, women and children died during the violence in Israel, specifically along the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The tribute was a multicultural and non-denominational ceremony. Palestinian and Israeli flags were planted next to one another in Red Square to symbolize the goal of reconciliation between the divided factions. Students set up a display to remember the dead, including a list of names and graphic pictures of this week’s violence. Beside the pictures of bloodied Palestinians and a Palestinian flag, a sign read: “To honor their lives and to recognize their deaths in the hope that the future will put an end to the violence and establish a lasting peace.”
The violence began shortly after Ariel Sharon, leader of Israel’s right-wing opposition party, visited a part of Jerusalem known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, a site sacred to both religions. Palestinians said Sharon’s presence desecrated the sanctity of the site. The visit resulted in an end to the cease-fire between Israeli and Palestinian factions.
