Commemoration ceremonies marking the sixth anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin begin this evening, according to the Hebrew calendar. With Rabin's memorial falling less than two weeks after the assassination of Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi, members of Israel's right wing state they should not be blamed for inciting and creating the political climate that led to the prime minister's murder.

A memorial candle will be lit at the President's residence in Jerusalem tonight in a ceremony attended by President Moshe Katsav, Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and Rabin's sister Rachel Rabin-Yaacov. Representatives of the left-wing No'ar Haoved Ve'halomed (Working and Studying Youth) movement, including Jews, Arabs and Druze, will light torches in rallies at more than 100 intersections around the country. Members of the mainstream Tzofim (Scouts) will hold a ceremony in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, where Rabin was assassinated after attending a peace rally on November 4, 1995.

The official State memorial service will take place on Mount Herzl tomorrow afternoon. In the ceremony, to be held near the graves of Rabin and his wife, Leah, who died last year, Rabin's son Yuval will speak on behalf of the family. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will speak for the government, and President Katsav, Speaker of the Knesset Avraham Burg and other dignitaries will be in attendance.

Flags on official buildings and at army bases around Israel will be flown at half-mast, as a sign of national mourning. Over the course of the next week, additional ceremonies and memorial evenings will be held in some 40 locations.

The national camp takes a new look at Rabin's assassination
The Knesset will meet in a special session tomorrow in Rabin's memory. For the first time, right of center "national camp" Knesset members have asked to speak at the annual memorial, Yediot Aharonot reported. MK Eliezer Cohen (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu) said, "I loved Rabin no less than anyone else in the Knesset."

"If we want to learn the lessons of Rabin's murder, we have to give expression also to those who did not agree with his political theory but still believe that the assassination of a prime minister unites the nation in mourning," said MK Michael Kleiner (Herut).

Kleiner recently circulated a petition among Knesset members proposing that a Memorial Day would also be set in the Israeli calendar to mark Ze'evi's assassination. Kleiner proposed that schoolchildren should be taught the "religious, moral, national and historic right of the Jewish people to be in the Land of Israel" in Ze'evi's memory.

MK Mossi Raz (Meretz) said, in response, that no justification should be given to Ze'evi's legacy (calling for the voluntary "transfer" of Palestinians) after his death, "just as it was it was invalid before he was murdered."

Some members of the Right would have the same thing to say against legitimizing Rabin's legacy today. According to Avishai Ben-Haim, writing today in ynet, Israel's right wing has formulated a new regard to Rabin's assassination in the wake of recent events. Following over a year of the Intifada's violence, seen by many as marking the total failure of the Oslo Accords, and after the assassination of a right wing minister, the Right has finally freed itself from any sense of guilt it might have had previously in connection with Rabin's murder, Ben-Haim writes.

"We have no reason today to be ashamed of the truth, and no reason to apologize for Rabin's murder," wrote Hagai Hoverman in the religious newspaper Hatsofeh this past weekend. "The Eretz Yisrael nationalist public has already recovered from the trauma of the murder," he added.

Some 200 followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane have been given permission to hold a demonstration on Mount Herzl on November 4, the Gregorian calendar date of Rabin's assassination and, by coincidence, the Hebrew date that marks Kahane's assassination. The Kahane followers, former members of the now-outlawed Kach movement, will reportedly demonstrate against Rabin and his policies promoting concessions and negotiations with the Palestinians.

Yediot Aharonot reports that the Kahane supporters plan to carry signs saying, "Friend, you are guilty," making fun of the "Friend, you are missed" bumper stickers which were popular among Israelis in the months following Rabin's assassination.

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