200,000 Honor Rabin in Israel

In a rally called the largest in Israel in 15 years, thousands of people converged here Saturday to honor the memory of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and send a powerful message of protest to the current premier, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The somber crowd filled the huge downtown square where Rabin was gunned down Nov. 4, 1995, by a Jewish religious extremist opposed to his policy of making peace with the Palestinians. Israeli police said the rally drew an estimated 200,000 people, rivaling massive protests in 1982 against Israel’s war in Lebanon.

The memorial opened with a recording of the slain leader’s last speech, delivered just moments before he was shot in the square that now bears his name. Listening to Rabin’s words as he called for peace with the Palestinians, many in the crowd wiped away tears.

The centerpiece of more than a week of events marking the anniversary of the assassination, the rally was billed by its organizers as a nonpolitical event, but politics intervened nonetheless.

Opposition Labor Party leader Ehud Barak called on those present to keep Rabin’s legacy alive. “Millions of hearts of all [political] camps are beating together in your memory, Yitzhak,” he said. “I promise you that we will . . . carry on walking in your path until we win.”

Bar Ilan University political scientist Gerald Steinberg said the huge turnout could be attributed to two factors: continuing shock and grief over the death of Rabin, a former general many Israelis regarded as uniquely qualified to forge a peace with the Palestinians, and growing frustration with Netanyahu’s inability or unwillingness to move the peace process forward.

“There is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the present government, and that’s what’s being expressed here, as well as a longing for the days when the peace process was just starting,” Steinberg said.

Ofer Hadas, an engineer from the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon, said he came to the rally to express both his sorrow over Rabin’s death and his disappointment with Netanyahu’s hard-line policies.

“Yitzhak Rabin symbolized for me a hope for peace, one that I was so confident in that I didn’t bother to do much for it,” said Hadas, 37. “But today, I’ve come to the point of feeling that I can’t leave things up to other people. . . . I’m here to help stop the next war.”

Yossi Sarid, leader of the leftist Meretz Party, alluded to accusations that Netanyahu, as head of the then-opposition Likud Party, helped create the angry, violent atmosphere that led to Rabin’s assassination and should apologize. Netanyahu has denied the accusations.

“What we want today is not an apology,” Sarid said, to loud applause from the crowd. “What we want is a resignation.”

The anniversary also is being marked this year against a backdrop of renewed conspiracy theories centering on a friend of Rabin assassin Yigal Amir who worked as an unpaid informant for the internal security service known as the Shin Bet. The service provides protection for the prime minister.

Former Shin Bet officials confirmed last week that Amir’s friend Avishai Raviv, a militant nationalist, had worked for the agency--fueling right-wing speculation that Amir, who has insisted he acted alone, was part of a wider conspiracy involving the government. Labor Party leaders have denounced the talk as an attempt by the right to escape indirect blame for the assassination.

Some at the rally said they hope the divisive speculation will end. “Everybody now is accusing everybody else of incitement. . . ,” said a 33-year-old scientist from Rehovot. “Those who should have learned their lesson have not, and are looking for the most revolting ways to push their own guilt away.”

Times staff writer Trounson reported from Jerusalem, and Sobelman of The Times’ Jerusalem Bureau reported from Tel Aviv.