Yigal Amir, who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 16 years ago, should have received the death penalty, said Kadima MK Avi Dichter on Saturday. "This was not just an effort to murder a prime minister. This was an attempt to murder Israeli democracy," Dichter said. On Friday, 100 family members, friends and Israeli citizens gathered at the grave of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah at the Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem for a memorial service. Ya'akov issued harsh criticism of today's government, as well. "The current political establishment is interested in blurring [my brother's] image and not talking about his murder. It was an assassination of a prime minister, not something the state of Israel can forget. It was a politically motivated murder," she said.
"This is the second incident in Israel [the first and only execution in the history of the State of Israel being that of Adolf Eichmann, who was hanged in 1962] that justifies the death penalty," Dichter said as the nation marked the anniversary of the murder, which occured Nov. 4, 1995. It shocked him, he said, that this idea had not been raised before with respect to someone who had assassinated a prime minister.
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Rabin's sister, Rachel Ya'akov, spoke at her brother's graveside, saying that Rabin's murder should not have surprised anyone. "The establishment blurs the murder. We are talking about a political murder that did not just fall out of the sky. This was deliberate and organized incitement. It was not neutral."
After the graveside visit, family and friends then gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, where the assassination occurred, and laid a wreath of flowers upon the memorial there. President Shimon Peres, who had just landed in Israel following a diplomatic trip to Cyprus, joined the group in Tel Aviv and offered a eulogy.
"Here in this square, 16 years ago, the blood of Yitzhak Rabin, one of the greats among the Jewish people, was spilled," Peres said. "This murder will be forever recorded as an eternal stain upon Israel's memory. We need Yitzhak's uplifting image; he will be remembered forever as a commander in chief who brought us the greatest [military] victory we knew and a statesman who paved the way for peace."
Peres also spoke directly to Rabin, saying, "History will honor your memory and we will shed tears over what happened. May your memory be a blessing."
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai also laid a flower wreath on the memorial and said, "Israeli democracy was dealt the worst possible blow when a despicable murderer changed the course of history."
On Saturday night, rain caused the traditional public memorial at Rabin Square to be postponed, and demonstration organizers said they would soon announce the rescheduled date of the gathering.
Meanwhile, on Thursday night, graffiti of a Star of David was discovered scrawled across the door to the offices of Peace Now, a left-wing non-governmental organization. According to neighbors, the vandal appeared to be a religious man who sprayed the graffiti and then disappeared.
Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer said in response, "It is the eve of the anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's death and yet there are right-wing demonstrators in the area acting violently. It seems likely that the next murderer is among them."
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