Bar-Ilan students to party on Rabin murder anniversary

Student union of university which Yigal Amir attended decides to hold party for opening of school year on November 4

Tamar Trabelsi-Hadad |Published: 11.01.10 , 16:54

The Bar-Ilan University's Student Union has decided to hold a party celebrating the beginning of the school year on a particularly sensitive date – November 4 - the day Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated 15 years ago.

The party is scheduled to take place in Tel Aviv's Haoman club and will include a concert by Israeli hip-hop group Hadag Nachash.

A Bar-Ilan student said, "The official memorial day for the prime minister's assassination is marked according to the Hebrew calendar but the student union should have been more sensitive, especially since the assassin, Yigal Amir, was a student at Bar-Ilan. It's very embarrassing that of all unions the Bar-Ilan Student Union would hold the party on this date."

Nevertheless, some students were confident that many would boycott the party due to the problematic timing.

The Bar-Ilan Student Union said in response: "We are aware of the public significance of the memorial day for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and on the official, Hebrew memorial day, special panels were held as well as a ceremony at the university.

"We sent representatives to the memorial rally last Saturday night. We respect the Rabin assassination anniversary. Any attempt to sully the Bar-Ilan University including all its students and present the student union in a negative light is cynical and even ridiculous."