The Knesset’s special ceremony to mark 30 years since the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on Monday brought existing political divides in the country to the surface as politicians addressed the plenum.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid’s (Yesh Atid) remarks led National Missions Minister Orit Strock (Religious Zionist Party) and MK Tally Gotliv (Likud) to walk out of the plenum.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not in attendance, and seats reserved for coalition MKs in the plenum mainly stood empty.
President Isaac Herzog joined as a member of the plenum’s audience, along with Rabin’s relatives and 44 ambassadors from around the world.
Rabin was assassinated on November 4, 1995, by a right-wing extremist at a rally in Tel Aviv. He had served two terms as prime minister. His assassination sparked a deep divide between Israel’s Right and Left.
“Rabin was assassinated, and [National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir is today a senior minister in the government. That is the greatest sin of the current government,” Lapid told the plenum.
The opposition leader mentioned extremism in his speech, saying that “if we want to unite the nation, the way to do it is to stand up to the extremists on both sides, telling them, ‘We will have no part in this.’”
“That, more than anything else, is Rabin’s legacy,” Lapid continued. “It is the legacy of practical Zionism: When you see something dangerous, confront it. When you see something broken, fix it. When you see something that doesn’t work, like the current government, replace it.”
After Strock exited, she posted on X/Twitter that she walked out because Lapid “used the occasion to sow hatred and incitement.”
Gantz points out Israel's divides
MK Benny Gantz, who leads the Blue and White party, spoke on the existing divides in the country, saying that “the gun has been laid down once again.”
He urged the nation to look within itself “before the next shot is fired.”
Further, Gantz addressed the incident in which former IDF military advocate-general Maj.-Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi temporarily disappeared on Sunday, raising concerns of possible suicide. Ultimately, she was found alive by the police in Tel Aviv.
The disappearance came amid an investigation into a leak of a video relating to the Sde Teiman Palestinian prisoner abuse case. Right-wing politicians had slammed Tomer-Yerushalmi over her disappearance.
“Yesterday, even before we had time to steady our breath, MK Gotliv was already declaring that the attorney-general tried to manipulate things to blacken the right-wing,” Gantz said. “Enough, let us breathe.”
Gantz also criticized Netanyahu’s absence from the plenum session for Rabin, saying, “It is wrong that you are not here.”
He added that the prime minister is “responsible for shutting down the poison machine. It is in your hands.”
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana opened the session, followed by the Likud’s Agriculture and Raw Food Security Minister Avi Dichter.
The minister spoke on polarization as well, stating that “turning every disagreement into a political fight only deepens division.”
“To meet the security and economic challenges before us, national and state considerations must guide our actions and decisions. We all understand that, in the end, we will find the way to reconcile within ourselves,” he said.
MK Merav Michaeli, a member of the Democrats party, which merged Rabin’s Labor Party with Meretz, rose up to deliver a speech as well.
She called Rabin’s assassination the Israeli people’s most significant trauma. “And I say this even in light of October 7.”
In praise of Rabin’s legacy, Michaeli called him “a prime minister who was a hero of Israel in its wars, the chief of staff who led the great victory of 1967, the liberator of Jerusalem, and the man who, as defense minister, instructed to respond to the intifada with a firm hand.”