President Yitzchak Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog hosted the annual state memorial ceremony "Ner Yitzchak" at Beit HaNasi today (Thursday), marking 31 years since the assassination of Prime Minister, Defense Minister and former IDF Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin zt"l.
The ceremony, held each year at the President's Residence, was attended by members of the Rabin family, Supreme Court President Yitzchak Amit, public figures and other guests.
"The three bullets fired thirty-one years ago sought to destroy the State of Israel, the Third Temple," President Herzog said in his remarks. "The despicable murderer aimed his weapon not only at Yitzchak Rabin, but at the heart of the entire nation. The vile assassin of the Prime Minister sought to place his gun above the public decision, to resolve a dispute through violence. Through murder. By threatening our very existence here as a Jewish, democratic and sovereign state. He murdered our beloved Yitzchak Rabin. We lost our leader. And we --- we nearly lost ourselves."
The President said the lesson from that cursed night must be internalized again and again: "There is no place for violence among us. And if we give it a place and ignore it, we endanger our very existence."
He then recounted a recent experience. "Not long ago I was driving on Highway 1 from Tel Aviv to Yerushalayim. I saw a sign calling for the release of Yigal Amir. The very possibility that such a call would stand in the public space and be met with a shrug should keep us awake at night. It must not be dismissed as just another provocation."
"Behind the call to release the murderer stands the terrible possibility that Israeli society will stop seeing his abhorrent act as utterly forbidden, that it will, G-d forbid, cease to treat it as a red line that must never be crossed."
"Thirty-one years is not a cooling-off period for the murder of a prime minister. And the distance from the crime does not diminish its severity. The national imperative that must pass from us to future generations is clear and unequivocal: the murderer must never be released. He must end his life in prison. He must never receive any relief or pardon whatsoever. This cannot be challenged in any way."
Against the backdrop of the approaching elections, Herzog added: "Thirty-one years after the terrible murder, there are people in the State of Israel who still dare to utter, to type on their keyboards, shocking threats to murder elected officials, from the Prime Minister through ministers, Knesset members and political leaders. There is no place for political violence in a proper state. There is no place for violence, period."
