TEL AVIV (AFP) — Tens of thousands of Israelis joined a rally on Saturday to mark the 13th anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin at the hands of a Jewish extremist opposed to peace with the Palestinians.
Israeli politicians including President Shimon Peres joined the massive crowd which gathered in the same Tel Aviv park where the Labour party leader was gunned down in November 1995.
"Yitzhak, your dream of peace will be achieved," said Defence Minister Ehud Barak, current Labour leader. "We will achieve it not by words but by actions."
Rabin is revered as a national hero, both for his legendary career as army chief and for peace efforts in the 1990s that earned him a Nobel peace prize shared with Peres and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
This year, the anniversary of his murder by Yigal Amir -- who is serving a life sentence in an Israeli jail -- has been marked by warnings that there could be a similar political assassination in the near future.
The Jewish state remains deeply divided over the Middle East peace process which was revived last November after a near seven-year hiatus in the wake of the Palestinian intifada or uprising.
Amir told Israeli television in recent interviews that his act was influenced by the rhetoric of right-wing politicians and generals, including former prime minister Ariel Sharon, whom he said made it clear the 1993 Oslo interim accords with the Palestinians "would lead to disaster."
The interviews with 43-year-old Amir, who has never expressed any remorse for the killing, were not aired because of a public outcry.
"The three bullets that killed the prime minister united us in a moment of anguish before again dividing us," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the rally.
Livni, who has been leading the latest negotiations with the Palestinians, is hoping to be elected prime minister when the country goes to the polls in February.
"Yitzhak we miss you, the country misses you, everyone of us misses you, but the path you drew is not lost," said Peres, who was at the rally where Rabin was shot.
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