Saturday, November 03, 2001 Cheshvan 17, 5762 Israel Time: 20:24 (GMT+2)18:12 03/11/2001 Last update - 19:40 03/11/2001
Rabin memorial service underway in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square
By Yam Yehosha, and Amit BenAroya , Ha'aretz Correspondents
A memorial service comemorating the sixth anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination is currently underway at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square.
The service will take place between 19:30-22:00. Several of the surrounding streets have been closed to traffic until the service is over.
Beginning at 18:00 parking was not allowed in the area near Rabin Square and in nearby Ibn Gvirol Street. The police have requested that drivers who do not intend to take part in the event avoid the area. Police forces will be on special alert and present in heightened nubmers throughout the evening.
The Prime Minister's office said that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would 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.
Sharon was originally scheduled to give a speech at the ceremony, but it was later decided to have no speeches by politicians.
September 9, 2000
Assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would never have offered Palestinians control over parts of the Old City of Jerusalem, as Ehud Barak has done, said Rabin's widow in remarks published Friday. "Yitzhak is spinning in his grave," Leah Rabin told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
Rabin's widow's remarks were likely to inspire Israeli hard-liners opposed to Prime Minister Ehud Barak's proposed concessions to the Palestinians. In 1995 Rabin was gunned down by an opponent of his peace policies. Rabin was the first Israeli prime minister to shake the hand of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who had been reviled as a terrorist until he signed an interim peace accord with Rabin's government in 1993.
Barak reportedly offered Arafat sovereignty in Arab neighborhoods and control of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, while Israel would have sovereignty on the Temple Mount. Leah Rabin said concessions on Jerusalem were taboo for her late husband who fought in the 1948 War of Independence when Israeli forces lost the Old City and its Jewish residents were taken captive. "He was thankful that in 1967 he was the army chief of staff who liberated it," she said.
Leah Rabin criticized the way Barak is handling the negotiations, and said Barak should not have started crucial talks with the Palestinians before repairing his strained personal relationship with Arafat. She said the peace process Rabin started was designed to build trust and good will, but that has not happened.
Despite Barak's claims, she said, he is not Rabin's spiritual successor. "He (Yitzhak Rabin) would not have made concessions on the Temple Mount and the Old City," she said. Leah Rabin ridiculed Arafat's reported offer of Israeli sovereignty in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and Palestinian rule over the rest of Jerusalem, including Muslim, Christian and Jewish holy sites.