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UN chief urges peace on 20th anniversary of former Israeli PM Rabin's assassination

Xinhua, November 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

On the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged all parties to stand firmly against violence and incitement.

Ban offered "deepest sympathies to the citizens of the State of Israel as they commemorate the life of a heroic man of peace," said a statement of the secretary-general's spokesman.

"Prime Minister Rabin dedicated his life to the security of his homeland. He died after courageously seizing on the need and the opportunity to embark on serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians," said the statement.

Citing Rabin as saying "you don't make peace with friends; you can only make peace with your enemies," Ban said "Rabin was vilified by many for that move, and then murdered by an opponent of the peace process just when it was at a moment of historic breakthrough," it said.

In the years since, terrorism, expanding settlements and halting progress in implementing Israeli-Palestinian agreements have repeatedly shattered peace hopes.

"Today, the voices of the majority who support peace and oppose violence are being drowned out by inflammatory rhetoric and shocking actions by extremists on all sides," it said.

Ban urged all parties to stand firmly against violence and incitement, and to be guided by Prime Minister Rabin's words that the path to true security and strength is through dialogue and compromise, it said.

Rabin was assassinated on Nov. 4, 1995, at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. The assassin, Yigal Amir, adamantly opposed Rabin's peace initiative and particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords. Enditem