The president laid a wreath at Rabin's grave • In a video to be broadcast at the online ceremony, he said: "It is important that we remember which abysses may lead to the acute alienation between 'us' and 'them'."
The president during the laying of the wreath on Rabin's grave
Photography:
Haim Tzach, GPO
President Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin went to the grave of Yitzhak Rabin on Mount Herzl today (Wednesday) on the 25th anniversary of the assassination.
Tomorrow a memorial service will be held there in the presence of the family only.
"This year, too, we are marking this Memorial Day, despite the state of emergency we are in," Rivlin said in a video to be aired as part of the online memorial service.
"Despite the corona restrictions. We insist on marking this important day. These are the milestones around which we gather year after year, hurting, talking, doing mental arithmetic.
"Unfortunately, many times we hear voices, sometimes matter-of-fact, sometimes cynical, alienating ourselves from this Memorial Day," he noted.
Deny it.
Claim that this day, and this man, do not concern them.
And from the other side, other voices seek to fence off the remembering public, and exclude from the duty to remember and the right to remember, but on this day of remembrance it is important that we remember which abysses, what destruction, may lead to acute alienation between 'us' and 'them'.
"I get to think a lot at this time about this term, mutual guarantee. About this fundamental and ancient value that accompanies our people for so many years. Mutual guarantee is not a destiny - it is a destiny. Mutual guarantee is the deep understanding that we have no privilege to turn our backs on our brothers and sisters, Even if they are on the other side of the barricade - the political barricade, the religious barricade, the ethnic barricade.
"Mutual guarantee is the understanding that we are navigating this ship together. Celebrating its achievements, hurting its failures, arguing, but maintaining the spaces of agreement between us, the fundamental values on which our partnership is founded. Insisting on the existence of this Memorial Day is the way we declare its memory. Of Yitzhak Rabin belongs to us, to all of us, "he concluded.
"May the memory of Yitzhak Rabin, a soldier, warrior, commander and prime minister, be etched on the heart of the nation from generation to generation."
