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Photo: AP
Rabin memorial candle
Photo: AP

Rabin memorial: National day of mourning or political soapbox?

Religious community feels vilified by Left's approach to memorial services honoring slain PM

Tuesday, November 4, marks the 13th anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Large memorial services are scheduled to take place a week later, on the event's Hebrew date (the12th of Heshvan), but a Ynet survey revealed that the religious community at large feels that the day is being hijacked to promote a political agenda.

 

The survey showed that most Israelis (60%) view the assassination's anniversary as a "national day of mourning." An additional 29% view it as an event that is manipulated for political purposes, and the remaining11% viewed it as "just another day," with no political significance in either direction.

 

However, a closer analysis of the survey, which was conducted in conjunction with the Gesher Foundation for religious-secular understanding, found that 72% of religious respondents viewed the day as one geared toward political spin, while only 15% viewed it as a day of national mourning.

 

This contrasts sharply with the responses of secular individuals, 71% of whom view the day as one of national mourning and only 20% of whom view it as a day that is being used as a political tool.

 

Marking out dangerous sectors

The second question in the survey was: "Which sector needs to be most wary about creating a political murderer in their midst?"

 

Twenty-eight percent of respondents declared that the Arab-Israeli population was most dangerous in this capacity, 28% voted for settlers, 14% believed that leftists needed to be most wary, 12% voted for the right-wing at large, 8% chose the national-religious community, 5% for seculars at large and 5% for the haredi community.

 

An analysis of these results based on the respondents' religious affiliation reveals that 35% of the secular community believes that a political murderer is most likely to derive from the settler community, while religious and moderate respondents (62% and 32%, respectively) believe that Arab-Israelis are the most dangerous in this regard.

 

Ultra-Orthodox respondents were torn between Arab-Israelis and leftists as the primary group likely to breed a political murderer (38% for each response).

 

'We're not murderers'

Dr. Asher Cohen of Bar Ilan's political science department spoke to Ynet about Rabin memorial day among the religious community. "The two possibilities – a national day of mourning and a political manipulation – are not mutually exclusive," he noted.

 

"The religious community, which primarily sees this day as the hijacking of a political soapbox in order to trash the religious community, answers the way they do not because they support the assassination but rather because they have garnered 13 years of experience that involves an endless amount of articles generalizing about the community's support of the murder and numerous literature that creates collective blame (for the religious community)," he said.

 

According to Dr. Cohen, if the national-religious community would be approached with a more tolerant attitude, which expressed the understanding that not all right-wingers were in favor of Rabin's assassination, there would be a chance for change.

 

"I, for example, did not murder Rabin, and think this was an abominable crime that should be censured and I know that religious Zionists think that no censure suffices for such a crime. I am a religious Zionist, whose views are to the right, and I represent most of the variegated religious Zionist community in this matter," he said.

 

Shosh Becker, the secretary-general of Gesher, responded to the findings saying, "I see that a specific sector is given responsibility for the next political murder. There's a message to the Arab-Israeli and settler communities, to restrain volatile elements that might manifest political struggle in violence," she said.

 

"It's interesting to note that the haredi community sees the Arab-Israeli sector and the anarchist left sector as most likely to produce a political murderer, while the left worry about settlers. In other words, each sector sees its opposite as the most threatening and doesn't look inward," she said.

 

"The responsibility is of the public at large not to use the anniversary of Rabin's assassination as a political tool but rather to strengthen the understanding that there are red lines in a society that should not be crossed. We can't bring Rabin back to life, but we can fix the implications of the memory associated with it," she added.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.04.08, 07:56
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