Rabin Rally

It rained last weekend and so the Rabin memorial was to be postponed until November 8th, yesterday. I had heard stories about the Rabin rally since my middle school years at Solomon Schechter and so my expectations were very high.
When I first arrived it was as expected: a four block radius of streets blocked off in all directions, hundreds of people flocking to the square that for the past 14 years has held the name of "Kikar Rabin" as a constant reminder of the tragedy that had occurred there. A huge stage had been erected up front along with two giant screens projecting the event for those of us who were in the back. There were so many people that the rally overflowed onto surrrounding streets where people could be seen sitting on the curbs just listening to the music and speeches.
A couple friends and I finally found a spot to sit beneath the Holocaust memorial sculpture towards the back of the square. We heard Shimon Perez and Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni. The leader of the Meretz party, the mayor of Tel Aviv and there even was a recorded message from Obama.
There were two types of speeches. The first began by speaking of the sorrow in the aftermath of Rabin's death and how devastating this was to the Israeli people. It then continued to say how in order for us to attain peace we must never give up land and we must fight for what is rightfully ours and that the left is ruining any chances we have. The second type of speech started with how terrible Rabin's murder was and how we must rid the world of people like Yigal Amir, his killer. They then spoke about how people like Yigal Amir, those right wing crazies, are the ones who are stopping any chance we have of peace and how we must fight the right wing if we want a better future for Israel.
I can't imagine what Rabin would be thinking if he saw what this rally has degenerated into. What had begun as a rally for peace was nothing more than a political gathering that gave politicians free airtime to promote their party's agenda. This aspect of the rally was disappointing.
However it was still very exciting to listen to performances by artists such as Miri Masika and Hadag Nachash. What was also interesting was that despite this being also very much a place to meet up with friends and such, socializing everywhere came to a halt when the siren blared for the moment of silence as well as at the very end for the singing of Hatikva. Those were two moments that remained pure in their symbolism and in their effectiveness at unifying the thousands who stood in that square.

In short, this was yet another Israeli experience that I feel priviledged to have been a part of, though I'll admit it was something of a disappointment.