PM Lapid at the state memorial ceremony for Yitzhak and Leah Rabin . Photo: GPO/Kobi Gideon.
PM Lapid : There is no point to this commemoration, there is no point to this day, if we do not learn something from it. What we must learn from Yitzhak Rabin’s life and death is that loving our homeland is first and foremost loving those who live together with you in that homeland.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid, today (Sunday, 6 November 2022), at the state memorial ceremony for Yitzhak and Leah Rabin at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem:
“As fate would have it, this commemoration for Yitzhak Rabin takes place only a few days after the State of Israel held elections and emerged from them once again divided, angry, and threatening to split into ‘us and them’.
“There is no ‘us and them’, only us. Rabin’s murder was an attempt at assassinating the very notion of us living together. We barely survived it, but the wounds have not yet healed. It is our job to heal them every day anew.
“We are here together. Religious and secular, right-wing, left-wing and centrist. Our differences of opinion are deep, they are real and sometimes necessary, but above all else – we have a shared responsibility. The IDF is all of ours. The police are all of ours. The legal system is all of ours. The Bible is all of ours.
“An absolute majority of this country’s citizens believe in the rule of law, democratic values, and mutual respect. The absolute majority of Israelis want a Judaism that unites us, not a Judaism that is a political tool and certainly not a Judaism that is an endorsement of violence.
“The absolute majority of Israel’s citizens are not willing to let hatred dictate their lives. They’re not ready to hate their neighbors, those they served with in the Army, those who sit with them at the Shabbat table.
“We have to decide now, at this moment, where this country is going. We are close to the point of no return, but it is still in our hands. We can still change direction. Reality is not an inevitable result of demographics or geography: It is a result of the choices and decisions we make.
“Our democracy may not appear in scripture, but this ceremony is a reminder that our democracy is sanctified in blood. Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by someone who violent incitement made believe that he need not accept the voters’ decision. This too we must remember and not forget.
“It would be an insult to this place, it would be a blow to Rabin’s memory and the memory of all those immortalized here on this mountain, if we continue with this destructive addiction to the division of ‘us and them.’ There is no ‘us and them’ at the graduation ceremony for the Officer’s Course at Bahad¬ 1. There is no ‘us and them’ at the Passover Seder or when standing together in line at a family health center.
“There is no ‘us and them’ when the smiling face of 18-year-old Noa Lazar from Emek Hefer appears on hundreds of thousands of screens at the same time, she who could have been our daughter but was killed defending our lives.
“We owe it to her, we owe it to Yitzhak Rabin, not to give up. To never, ever, ever give up. To fight for the common good. To not let this country disintegrate into angry tribes. I am not ready for this country to collapse due to infighting and hatred, because I know how that ends.
“It ends with three gunshots, it ends here. In this ceremony. In this place.
“There is no point to this commemoration, there is no point to this day, if we do not learn something from it. If we do not learn the lesson. What we must learn from Yitzhak Rabin’s life and death is that loving our homeland is first and foremost loving those who live together with you in that homeland.
“May his memory be for a blessing.”