As Israel Memorializes Yitzhak Rabin, President Rivlin, Prime Minister Netanyahu Stress Need for Unity
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin struck a message of unity and warned against incitement during a state memorial service on Sunday for the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995.
“Twenty-four years after the murder and it is as if the question of our joint fate still remains open,” Rivlin said. “The nightmare that none of us thought could happen turned into reality. The fear that we will, with our own hands, bring about our own downfall, remains etched in our consciousness.”
Rivlin exhorted his listeners not to fall into self-destructive divisiveness, saying, “Do not believe the absurd, strange, and insane voices of the fringes. Do not believe those who speak about post-truth, alternative facts, and new theories. Post-truth means lies and alternative facts are fraud. Do not be tempted to believe that these voices are representative. Do not lend support to those who try, with all their might, to add fuel to the fire.”
“We must not continue to use the murder to score points in the political discourse,” he continued. “We must not use the trauma, the pain, to fight the opposing camp’s ideology.”
