Eulogy on a Famous Person

Eulogy on a Famous Person

Introduction

Yigal Amir, a law student and member of a right-wing Jewish extremist group, assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the evening of November 5, 1994. The assassination occurred while Rabin was attending a peace rally intended to quell growing violence between factions of Israeli right-wing settlers and Palestinians. Rabin had intended the peace rally to affirm the dedication of the government and of the people to the creation of a lasting peace for Israel.

Eulogy on a Famous Person

Although there had been many pledges by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a separatist Palestinian paramilitary group, to end acts of violence and terrorism in the months preceding the assassination, there had been increasing Palestinian aggression in the territories. This was met by agitation by Israeli right-wing and fundamentalist settlers who were opposed to the peace process (Artzi and Noa, 2004). On the West Bank, some extremist Rabbis gave sermons in which they expressed the belief that Rabin was a traitor who persecuted the Jewish people. Some members of the Likud Party, political opponents to Rabin's Zionist Party, stated that Rabin's followers were traitors and terrorists. Extremist right-wing propaganda likened Rabin and his followers to Nazis.

Rabin refused to allow the threats to limit his public appearances or to diminish the energy with which he pursued the peace process. He was reported to have said that the Likud Party, which was vocally opposed to the peace process, was fomenting right-wing hatred that could lead to potential public acts of violence (Artzi and Noa, 2004).

In confessing to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Amir stated that he did so in order to put a halt to the Middle East peace efforts. He reported that he planned the attack on the Prime Minister well in advance and did ...