As Israel Memorializes Yitzhak Rabin, PM Lapid and President Herzog Stress Need for Unity After Bruising Election Season

Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog stressed the importance of national unity and warned against incitement to violence...

Prime Minister Yair Lapid at the state memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem

Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog stressed the importance of national unity and warned against incitement to violence during a state memorial service on Sunday for the late premier Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995.

Lapid, who was defeated in Tuesday’s national elections by former premier Benjamin Netanyahu with the backing of far-right parties, cautioned that Israel emerged out the elections “once again divided, angry, and threatening to split into ‘us and them’.”

“We have to decide now, at this moment, where this country is going,” Lapid said at the memorial ceremony on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl marking 27 years since Rabin’s assassination. “We are close to the point of no return, but it is still in our hands. We can still change direction.”

“Reality is not an inevitable result of demographics or geography: It is a result of the choices and decisions we make,” Lapid added.

Rabin’s state ceremony was held as Netanyahu started to hold informal talks in preparation for the formation of a new government with far-right politicians, including Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism and Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party.

In his youth, an ardent Kahane supporter, Ben Gvir was not allowed to serve in the IDF because of his extreme views and he has previously also been charged for incitement to violence or hate speech.

Just weeks before Rabin’s assassination by a Jewish extremist, Ben Gvir was filmed on television holding an ornament from Rabin’s car threatening: “We got to his car. We’ll get to him, too.”

“Rabin was murdered by someone who violent incitement made believe that he need not accept the voters’ decision,” Lapid remarked. “This too we must remember and not forget.”

Over the past year, far-right lawmaker Ben Gvir has been rising in popularity advocating for the Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank and the overhaul of core elements of Israel’s judicial system.

“An absolute majority of this country’s citizens believe in the rule of law, democratic values, and mutual respect,” Lapid asserted. “The absolute majority of Israelis want a Judaism that unites us, not a Judaism that is a political tool and certainly not a Judaism that is an endorsement of violence.”

Lapid exhorted his listeners to not let the country “disintegrate into angry tribes.”

“The absolute majority of Israel’s citizens are not willing to let hatred dictate their lives,” he stated. “They’re not ready to hate their neighbors, those they served with in the army, those who sit with them at the Shabbat table.”

The rise in popularity of the radical right has stoked fears that Netanyahu’s election victory will allow Jewish extremists, including Ben Gvir, to join a future government as ministers sitting on the country’s security cabinet. Prior to the election, Ben Gvir announced that he will demand to be appointed public security minister with authority over the police, during coalition negotiations.

President Herzog standing next to Rabin’s grave echoed a message of unity and issued a plea to stay committed to Israel’s definition of a Jewish and democratic state,

“Even 27 years since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, it seems that not much has changed, not enough has changed,” Herzog cautioned. “In Israeli society there are sleep-depriving signs of incitement and indignation, of violence eroding the foundations of democracy.”

Herzog urged politicians to “turn down the flames, and to show responsibility and a comprehensive vision.”

“Another election campaign is already behind us; And once again accusations of treason were thrown into the air, and again comparisons to Nazis were heard, and once again the public space was filled with dangerous violence like no other,” Herzog lamented. “It’s time to rebuild ourselves, together.”