On Sunday night my friend (Bez) and I attended commemoration for Yitzchak Rabin, the ex-Prime Minister of Israel who was murdered by a Religious Zionist Jew in 1995. The event- Melbourne's only official commemoration of Rabin - was organised by Hashomer Hatzair, Australian Jewish Democratic Society and Meretz Australia (all of these organisations are on the political left). There were hardly any attendants and I am fairly certain that Bez and I were the only people present who would identify themselves as being part of the Orthodox Community (EDIT: apparently there were a few others).
The speakers focused on Rabin himself and there was little more than a brief mention of the effect that Rabin’s murder had on Israeli society and the way it changed Israel's perception of democracy. Most importantly, it did not assess the role and responsibility of the Religious Zionist community for Rabin’s assassination. This was a highly appropriate approach considering the background of crowd and the hosts(and something that I fully support) but was disappointing considering that this was Melbourne's only official event in honour of Rabin.
Due to the event's lacking of breadth and the significance of Rabin's murder, I feel that it was the responsibility of a united community body such as the Australian Zionist Youth Council (AZYC) or the State Zionist Council (SZC) to hold a ceremony which focused on these additional aspects. Moreover, in light of current attempts by Yigal Amir's supporters to push for his exoneration, the Religious Zionist community of Melbourne should have made certain that it discussed and debated the reaction of the Religious Zionist community to the assassination, the lack of preventative actions taken by the community and the way that Religious Zionists should approach politics today, 12 years after the assassination.
As for the commemoration that actually took place, I don't want to go into the details of the speakers, but i would like to mention an analogy made by one of the speakers in response to a question from the audience. The speaker described how when he first came to Australia (he was originally from Israel) , farmers from the Victorian Highlands held a protest and drove their tractors to Parliament (or some similar building) and protested about their right to live and farm as they always had. The speaker remarked the farmers' cause seemed noble but that the reason why the farmers were being deterred from their traditional style of farming was because it is not suited to the Australian environment and it is not sustainable or the best use of limited resources. Despite this, Australians remain sentimental about the myth of The Man From Snowy River.
The speaker then compared the farmers' situation to the Zionist Dream and noted that what the Zionists originally set-out to do is not necessarily what is best suited to present-day Israel, its inhabitants and its neighbours. But like the myth of the Man From Snowy River, the Zionist Dream persists. Interestingly, a member of the audience (a guy from Hashomer Hatzair) pointed out that in the case of the farmers, the body politic was represented by the parliament and a lawful and logical decision could be made but in the case of Israel, the body politic consists of Israeli citizens and is not representative of all those affected by Israeli policy and therefore the decisions that it makes are not as fair as those made about the farmers.
It is also interesting to note that the event was concluded with the singing of Shir L'Shalom (the Song famously sung before Rabin was murdered) and that Hatikva was NOT sung.
Whilst I am on the topic of Rabin, I would like to mention the brilliant speech given by R' Aharon Lichtenstein of Yeshivat Har Etzion soon after the murder of Rabin. You can read the transcript of the speech here.
