Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
on Wednesday dedicated his speech at a special Knesset session marking the 12th anniversary of Rabin's assassination to
the difficulties in seeking peace.
Addressing the upcoming US-sponsored peace conference, Olmert promised to give a chance to a dialogue with the Palestinians, just like Rabin had done at the time.
| Mount Herzl Ceremony |
|
| Olmert: Bullets won't stop peace / Neta Sela |
|
President, prime minister address ceremony at Mount Herzl marking 12 years since former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. 'Israel is stronger than any shock or crisis,' Peres says. Rabin's grandson talks of personal price |
| Full story |
|
|
|
"I don’t know if we are completely ready for peace, but I know that it is my duty a prime minister in Israel to do all I can to advance these times or at least to try and bring them closer, as Yitzhak Rabin believed and wished.
"Therefore, we will be there in Annapolis with our eyes open, level-headed and careful, but giving a chance to a dialogue between us and the Palestinians. We already know that peace is not made in international meetings."
Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik slammed the family of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassin and called on the media to stop dealing with Yigal Amir's family members.
"The people of Israel's God is not your god. Your god is not our God. Your country is not our country. You have no place among the people of Israel,"
Itzik said.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said in his speech that "Yigal Amir must never be released."
The session opened with a moment of silence.
Olmert recalled how he opposed the Oslo Accords at the time.
"I did not support his decision then, I voted against it at the Knesset, in this room. We had different views, but I appreciated his courage to do this without any illusions and be ready to pay the price. And it indeed had a heavy, unprecedented price, the price of his life.
"I have wondered more than once, particularly in the past two years, what caused him to reach this change in direction, what convinced him to follow the Oslo road. I assume that it was his faith."
According to Knesset Speaker Itzik, "Year after year we learn that the roots of this horrible man and the origins of his evil are well rooted at his parent's home and among his family members, who support his opinions and acts. And from there, from that evil house, they spread to larger circles on the street.
"Knesset members, the media have recently been covering the murderer's family in a disgusting way. This has nothing to do both with values of the 'duty of report' and the 'freedom of expression and with 'free press', the essence of democracy."
The Knesset speaker called on the Israeli people to let Amir rot in his cell.
"Throw him into the garbage can of history. The media coverage of him and his family members only pours oxygen into the crime."
Earlier Wednesday, a state ceremony commemorating the 12th anniversary of Rabin's assassination was held at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
RSS
