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Last update - 22:30 23/10/2007

From the assassination of Rabin to Democracy Day

By Yedidia Stern and Avi Saguy

"He whose candle was snuffed out, he's buried in the dust, A bitter cry won't wake him, and won't bring him back."

These were almost the last words of Yitzhak Rabin, of blessed memory. The shy, introverted man sang them, with flushed cheeks, from the platform in the square that was later named after him. At the end of the worst night in our public lives, the "Song to Peace" was found in the prime minister's pocket, soaked in his blood. There is no question that those words are also true of Yitzhak Rabin himself. Bitter weeping on his memorial day won't bring him back.

Before he was shot, Rabin sang another line from the "Song to Peace": "Do not look backward, Leave those who departed." This is a harsh, controversial statement, which presents the memory of the past, including those who have fallen in war, as a millstone that delays progress toward peace with enemies. In order for us to be able to lift our eyes in hope, says the poet out of emotional depth and courage, we must repress the memory of those who gave their lives on the battlefield. Is this painful truth also true of the memory of the late prime minister, whose life was taken from him on the field of peace? Should we leave Yitzhak? For what purpose?

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Rabin's assassination changed the private biography of many of us, as though the deceased were a family member lying in our private backyard, with his blood crying out. The pain, at the time, turned us into one family that crowded brokenhearted over their father's grave. The public space was turned into an intimate mourning site. The House of Yaakov mourned the Sacrifice of Yitzhak.

The situation today is different. The public mourning attracts fewer and fewer participants. The pain is becoming dulled; the memory is becoming blurred; the shock is gone. They are replaced by ceremonies, lofty words and a mark on the calendar. Rabin's assassination is no longer a real experience but an Israeli ritual that is undergoing an accelerated process of erosion. The terrible moment when a nation stopped has been taken over by the routine of "a day of mourning."

It is the beneficial way of the world that the deceased is fated to be forgotten. However, what is true of a private deceased person is not true of a public one. Mourning in the wake of a private death is a transitional experience, which is meant to enable emotional acceptance of the death of the deceased. Therefore, paradoxically, the return to routine is the goal of mourning. However, a political murder of an incumbent prime minister, committed for religious reasons, is an entirely different matter.

The person who fell in the city square was a means; the assassin's ultimate goal was the state and its institutions. The gun was aimed at Rabin because he had the symbolic and practical power to act on major issues as an organ of the state. Instead of a marketplace of ideas, parties, polls and a coalition, what we were offered 12 years ago was a gun, a magazine, a firing pin and a blind and determined fanatical force. Instead of partnership in the democratic rules of the game, we were dictated decisions that pretended to express religious preferences. On Malkhei Yisrael (Kings of Israel) Square the murderer attacked the kingdom of Israel. The years that have passed since then teach us that the danger to the kingdom has not passed, it has even intensified. Therefore we should not agree to forget the memorial day for Rabin's assassination.

The way in which the day has been marked until now, with a focus on the murdered man, is understandable; but it misses the formative significance of the national tragedy we experienced. With the passing of the years it turns out that the personal content of the day undermines its effectiveness. Soon it will become similar to a memorial day for a private deceased person - his relatives remember; the others ignore it.

A change is needed. We must put aside the personal mourning and instead make the 12th of Heshvan a date on which civil society in Israel marks "Democracy Day." On the date when the state and its institutions were attacked we will speak about it, teach it, celebrate it. We will mention Yitzhak Rabin, not with a review of his life, but by emphasizing the framework for which he sacrificed his life.

The Israeli calendar has no date on which everyone unites around a common issue. Democracy Day will fulfill this role: It will not mark a unique identity or interest - whether religious, national or cultural - but will emphasize the possibility of the peaceful coexistence of people of different identities. For example, Israeli Arabs, who do not participate in the Independence Day celebrations, will be happy to join a day that will focus on the democratic experience. Many members of the religious and ultra-Orthodox public do not connect to the Rabin Memorial Day because they feel that it has been exploited to promote a political viewpoint that they passionately reject. Others also remember the scandalous collective blame of the religious public during the difficult period following the murder. Both these groups will join a Democracy Day that will fall - how fitting - on the day when a great democratic leader was assassinated.

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1.	I mourn my friends who died because of Rabin	07:02	\|	Dani	24/10/07

2.	One man`s democracy is another man`s totalitarianism	07:57	\|	sh	24/10/07

3.	Let`s have a vote on it shall we?	08:18	\|	G. Segev	24/10/07

4.	Enough	11:00	\|	Realistic	24/10/07

5.	"Democracy day" ?	12:06	\|	Esther	24/10/07

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