Jews, Israelis and Friends club honors late Israeli PM – 11/10/2008

Rather then eating lunch in the Sunken Garden, members of the Jews, Israelis and Friends club gathered in the Main Quad on Nov. 11 to reflect upon the legacy of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Members of JIF set up booths by the fountain, allowing students to discuss and learn about Rabin’s attempts to establish peace in the Middle East. On display was a copy of a memoir written by his granddaughter.

Posters illustrated Rabin’s lifetime accomplishments as a military leader and politician. Photos displayed included the famous moment he entered East Jerusalem with Moshe Dayan and Uzi Narkiss after the Six-Day War.

Songs written in Rabin’s honor played while club members offered bagels to students passing by.

JIF members Bella Yashayev and Maya Kostyanovsky together read the last speech Rabin gave at a peace rally in Tel Aviv followed by the song Ha’ish Ha Hu, which is Hebrew for “That Man,” a song that has been associated with him.

JIF co-President Omer Ben-Zvi and Zohar Porshyan, Hillel’s Israel Fellow, performed the song.

Rabin was the fifth prime minister of Israel and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. He shared this honor with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat for the signing of the Oslo Accords.

Signed in 1993, the Oslo Accords was an agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization to formally acknowledge each other, and to establish the West Bank and Gaza Strip territory to be self governed by the Palestinians for five years.

Yigal Amir, a right-wing radical who was opposed to the Oslo Accords, assassinated Rabin in 1995.

“I was ashamed that one of my people did it,” said Porshyan, reflecting on the the tragedy.

“It was like a political earthquake for Israel,” said Emilya Burd, a member of JIF disusing the impact the assassination had.

The assassination and its lasting effects have been compared to the 1963 assassination of American President John F. Kennedy.

Written for La Voz Weekly
11/10/2008
Original Article: Jews, Israelis and Friends club honors late Israeli PM