'Netanyahu ashamed to attend Rabin memorial ceremony; he led the gangs'

Rabin confidant Shimon Sheves said Netanyahu's decision not to attend the commemoration was because: “He is ashamed... he knows that the public who will be there abhor his actions."

 Candles set up at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv in memoriam for assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, October 18, 2021. (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
Candles set up at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv in memoriam for assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, October 18, 2021.
(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu saw criticism on Monday morning after announcing he was not going to attend the memorial ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem for former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin who was assassinated in 1995.

Shimon Sheves, who served as director-general of the Prime Minister's Office under Rabin, condemned Netanyahu on a 103 FM radio show and said, “Netanyahu has a big part in this story, he stood at the head of the gangs.

“Netanyahu was prime minister, and shame that he was,” raged Sheves. “He is ashamed to attend because he knows that the public who will be there abhors his actions back then, 26 years ago.”

Meretz reacted to Netanyahu’s no-show and said that “boycotting a national commemoration of a murder by the head of the opposition is another step in the incitement and erasing efforts, a distortion of history and an attempt to shed responsibility. Whoever does not see importance in commemoration doesn’t want to prevent the next murder.”

A source close to Netanyahu was quoted as saying, "ssuch events have consistently been used as an excuse for unrestrained attacks on him, the Likud and the Right."

The interview continued with Sheves claiming that “when Netanyahu says Bennett is an illegitimate prime minister, that is a very dangerous statement. Some may interpret it as a lease for harm and violence that ends with a gun. I don’t rule out a political murder happening again.” 

Former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by Yigal Amir ion November 4, 1995 after a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Netanyahu, at the time head of the opposition and leader of the Likud, was a fierce opponent of Rabin and his party’s attempts to negotiate with a peace deal with the Palestinians known as the Oslo Accords.

“He never apologized or asked for forgiveness,” Sheves said. “History won't forgive and won't forget.”