November 4, 1995, Tel Aviv, Israel, 9:30 p.m. Kings of Israel Square is filled with more than 100,000 people. They are attending a peace rally. They are supporting the Oslo Accords, the peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians signed 2 years earlier. On the stage, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stands with other Israeli leaders.
The crowd is singing “Song for Peace”, an anthem of the Israeli peace movement. Rabin is 73 years old. He has been a soldier and military leader for most of his life. He commanded Israeli forces during the Six-Day War in 1967. He served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States. He was Prime Minister once before, from 1974 to 1977.
He returned to the position in 1992. And in September 1993, he did something that shocked the world. He shook hands with Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization on the White House lawn in Washington, D.C. That handshake symbolized the Oslo Accords, a peace agreement that gave Palestinians limited self-government in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
For Rabin, a former general who had spent decades fighting Arab armies, making peace with the Palestinians was a profound transformation. But the peace process had created intense opposition within Israel. Right-wing Israelis, religious nationalists, and settlers in the occupied territories viewed the Oslo Accords as a betrayal.
They believed that giving land to Palestinians violated Jewish religious law and threatened Israeli security. At 9:50 p.m., the rally ends. Rabin walks down the steps from the stage toward his car. His bodyguards surround him. As Rabin approaches his vehicle, a young man steps forward from the crowd. The man is 25 years old.
His name is Yigal Amir. He is an Israeli, a Jew, a law student at Bar-Ilan University. He is also a religious extremist who believes that Rabin is a traitor for making peace with the Palestinians. Amir raises a pistol. He fires three shots at point-blank range. Two bullets hit Rabin in the back. One bullet hits a bodyguard. Rabin collapses.
His bodyguards rush him into the car. The driver speeds toward Ichilov Hospital, less than 2 miles away. In the car, Rabin is barely conscious. He is bleeding heavily. At the hospital, doctors perform emergency surgery, but the damage is too severe. At 11:10 p.m., doctors pronounce Yitzhak Rabin dead. The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin was not a random act of violence.
It was the culmination of months of incitement, of political rhetoric that portrayed Rabin as an enemy of Israel, of protests that called for his death, and it was an assassination that changed Israeli history, that ended the best chance for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and that revealed the depth of division within Israeli society.
This is the story of why Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, who killed him, what led to that moment, and how his death changed everything. Let’s begin by understanding who Yitzhak Rabin was and why he decided to pursue peace with the Palestinians. Rabin was born in Jerusalem in 1922 during the British Mandate period before Israel existed.
He joined the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Jewish community in Palestine as a young man. During Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, Rabin commanded forces in Jerusalem. He rose through the military ranks. By 1964, he was chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, the highest military position in Israel.
In June 1967, as chief of staff, Rabin commanded Israeli forces during the Six-Day War. In that war, Israel defeated the armies of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in 6 days. Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem. The victory made Rabin a national hero.
He was celebrated as the architect of Israel’s greatest military triumph. After retiring from the military in 1968, Rabin entered politics. He served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 1968 to 1973. In 1974, he became Prime Minister for the first time. His first term was marked by internal political difficulties and scandals.
He resigned in 1977 after revelations that his wife had maintained an illegal bank account in the United States. Rabin spent the next 15 years in the political opposition. But in 1992, he returned to lead the Labor Party. In the June 1992 election, Labor defeated the Likud Party. Rabin became Prime Minister again.
He was 70 years old. He had spent most of his life as a soldier and a hawk on security issues, but now he was ready to take risks for peace. Why did Rabin decide to pursue peace with the Palestinians? Several factors influenced his decision. First, Rabin recognized that the First Palestinian Intifada, an uprising that began in 1987, had changed the situation.
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Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were demanding an end to Israeli occupation. The Intifada involved mass protests, strikes, and stone-throwing by Palestinian civilians, including children. Israeli soldiers were responding with force, killing hundreds of Palestinians. The images damaged Israel’s international reputation.
Second, Rabin believed that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 had created a new opportunity for peace. The Soviet Union had been the primary arms supplier to Arab states. With the Soviet Union gone, Arab states had less support. The regional balance of power favored Israel more than ever. Rabin thought this was the moment to negotiate from strength.
Third, Rabin feared that continued occupation would threaten Israel’s Jewish character. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza had high birth rates. If Israel continued to control these territories without giving Palestinians citizenship, Israel would face a choice. Grant Palestinians citizenship and lose its Jewish majority, or deny them citizenship and become an apartheid state.
Rabin wanted to separate from the Palestinians, to end Israeli control over millions of Palestinians while maintaining Israel’s security. In 1993, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held secret talks in Oslo, Norway. The Norwegian government facilitated the of discussions, Israeli and Palestinian representatives reached an agreement.
On September 13th, 1993, Rabin and Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn in Washington. President Bill Clinton stood between them, encouraging them to shake hands. Rabin hesitated. He did not want to shake Arafat’s hand. Arafat had led the PLO, an organization that had carried out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians for decades.
But Clinton urged him. Rabin shook Arafat’s hand. The image was broadcast around the world. The Oslo Accords established a framework for peace. The PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist and renounced terrorism. Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. The agreement created the Palestinian Authority, a governing body that would have limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli forces would withdraw from some Palestinian cities. Further negotiations would address final status issues, borders, Jerusalem, refugees, and settlements. Rabin saw the Oslo Accords as a way to achieve security for Israel while ending the occupation of most Palestinians. But he never promised to withdraw from all occupied territory.
He insisted that Israel would keep major settlement blocks, would maintain security control, and would never divide Jerusalem. Rabin’s vision was separation, not full Palestinian sovereignty. The Oslo Accords were controversial in Israel from the beginning. The Israeli right wing opposed any territorial compromise.
Religious nationalists believed that the West Bank, which they called Judea and Samaria, the biblical names, was part of the land of Israel promised by God to the Jewish people. Settlers who lived in West Bank settlements viewed withdrawal as abandonment. They believed that Rabin was endangering their lives and betraying Jewish religious law.
Between 1993 and 1995, opposition to Rabin intensified. Protests against the Oslo Accords became larger and more extreme. Demonstrators carried signs depicting Rabin in Nazi uniform. They called him a traitor. They chanted, “Rabin is a murderer.” and “Death to Rabin.” Some protesters burned pictures of Rabin.
Others performed symbolic funerals for him. Religious leaders issued statements condemning Rabin. Some rabbis declared that giving up land violated Jewish law. A few rabbis issued a din rodef, a religious ruling that a person who endangers Jewish lives may be killed. While these rabbis did not explicitly call for Rabin’s assassination, their rhetoric created an atmosphere in which violence became thinkable.
On November 4th, 1995, Rabin’s supporters organized a peace rally in Tel Aviv to demonstrate public support for the Oslo process. More than 100,000 people attended. It was one of the largest rallies in Israeli history. The atmosphere was hopeful. Rabin gave a speech defending the peace process. He said, “Violence is undermining the foundations of Israeli democracy.
It must be condemned and isolated. This is not the way of the state of Israel.” He spoke about his commitment to peace and security. The crowd applauded. After the speech, Rabin and other leaders sang “Song for Peace” together. Rabin put a copy of the song’s lyrics in his jacket pocket. At 9:50 p.m., Rabin left the stage and walked toward his car.
His security detail surrounded him, but the security arrangements had failures. Yigal Amir, the assassin, had been able to enter a secured area near Rabin’s car. Security personnel had seen Amir in the area earlier, but had not removed him because they assumed he was part of the security team or a driver. Amir had planned the assassination for months.
He had attended previous Rabin events looking for opportunities. He had brought a gun before, but had not found the right moment. On November 4th, he succeeded. He stepped forward as Rabin approached the car. He fired three shots from a Beretta pistol at close range. Two hollow-point bullets struck Rabin in the back, causing massive internal damage.
A third bullet hit bodyguard Yoram Rubin in the arm. Rabin’s bodyguards pushed him into the car and sped toward Ichilov Hospital. In the car, Rabin was conscious briefly. He asked, “It hurts, but it’s not so bad.” But by the time the car reached the hospital, Rabin had lost consciousness from blood loss. Surgeons operated for more than an hour, but they could not save him.
Rabin died at 11:10 p.m. Yigal Amir did not flee. He was arrested immediately at the scene. When police questioned him, Amir showed no remorse. He said he had killed Rabin to stop the peace process. He said, “I acted alone and on orders from God.” He believed that killing Rabin was justified under Jewish religious law because Rabin was endangering Jewish lives by giving land to Palestinians.
Amir was 25 years old, a law student, and a religious nationalist. He had served in the Israeli army and had been active in right-wing settler movements. He had attended rallies against Rabin. He had been influenced by rabbis who declared that the Oslo Accords violated Jewish law. Amir later testified that he believed he was preventing a disaster for the Jewish people.
Israel was shocked by the assassination. Many Israelis had never imagined that a Jew would kill an Israeli prime minister. Political violence between Israelis and Arabs was familiar, but this was an Israeli killing an Israeli, a Jew killing a Jew over political disagreement. It revealed a profound division in Israeli society.
President Ezer Weizman addressed the nation saying, “The state of Israel is in shock and deep mourning.” Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Rabin’s partner in the peace process, said, “We are orphaned.” Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the assassination and called for national unity.
But many blamed Netanyahu and other right-wing leaders for creating the atmosphere that made the assassination possible. Rabin’s funeral was held on November 6th, 1995 at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Dozens of world leaders attended, including President Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordan’s King Hussein, and representatives from more than 80 countries.
King Hussein, who had signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, gave a moving eulogy. He said, “I had never thought that the moment would come like this, when I would grieve the loss of a brother, a colleague, and a friend.” Clinton also spoke saying, “Shalom haver.” Hebrew for “Goodbye, friend.” Rabin’s granddaughter, Noa Ben Artzi, delivered a personal and emotional eulogy that brought many to tears.
She said to her grandfather, “Others greater than I have already eulogized you, but none of them ever had the pleasure I had to feel the caresses of your warm, soft hands, to merit your warm embrace that was reserved only for us, to see your half smile that always told me so much.” Yigal Amir was tried and convicted of murder.
In March 1996, he was sentenced to life imprisonment plus six years. He showed no remorse during the trial. He testified that he would do it again. Amir remains in prison to this day. He married in prison and has a child. His lack of regret and his continued justification of the murder have made him a symbol of extremism in Israel.
After Rabin’s death, Shimon Peres became prime minister. Peres tried to continue the peace process, but he faced political difficulties. In early 1996, a series of suicide bombings by Hamas killed dozens of Israelis, undermining public support for the Oslo Accords. In May 1996, Peres called early elections.
Benjamin Netanyahu defeated Peres by a narrow margin. Netanyahu’s Likud government slowed the peace process significantly. The assassination had changed Israeli politics. The Israeli public became more skeptical of peace agreements. The right wing, which had opposed Oslo, now argued that Rabin’s approach had been naive and dangerous.
Settlement construction in the West Bank accelerated under Netanyahu and subsequent right-wing governments. The vision of territorial compromise that Rabin had pursued became less and less politically feasible. The peace process stalled after Rabin’s death. There were further attempts at negotiation, the Camp David Summit in 2000, the Annapolis Conference in 2007, but none succeeded.
The Second Intifada erupted in 2000, bringing years of violence. The gulf between Israelis and Palestinians widened. The two-state solution that Rabin had envisioned became increasingly unlikely as settlements expanded and mistrust deepened. Many Israelis believe that if Rabin had lived, peace might have been achieved. They argue that Rabin had the security credentials and the political strength to make the necessary compromises.
Others are skeptical, noting that the Oslo process faced serious obstacles even before the assassination, Palestinian terrorist attacks, settlement expansion, disputes over Jerusalem, and the refugee issue. What is certain is that Rabin’s assassination ended the most serious Israeli effort to negotiate a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Rabin was willing to take risks that his successors were not. His death removed the Israeli leader most capable of convincing the Israeli public to accept painful compromises. Rabin’s assassination also revealed the danger of political extremism and incitement. The rhetoric that portrayed Rabin as a traitor, the protests that called for his death, the religious rulings that justified violence, all of this created an environment in which Yigal Amir felt empowered to pull the trigger.
Israeli society has since debated the responsibility of political and religious leaders who used extreme language against Rabin. Every year on the anniversary of Rabin’s assassination, tens of thousands of Israelis gather at the site where he was killed, now called Rabin Square. They light candles, sing “Song for Peace”, and remember the leader who tried to make peace and was killed for it.
The square has become a memorial to Rabin and a symbol of the Israeli peace movement. Rabin’s legacy remains contested in Israel. The political right views him as a leader who made dangerous concessions that endangered Israeli security. The political left views him as a hero who had the courage to pursue peace.
But everyone agrees that his assassination was a watershed moment, a trauma that changed Israel. Yitzhak Rabin was killed because he chose peace over occupation, because he shook hands with Israel’s enemy, because he was willing to compromise. He was killed by an Israeli who believed that political disagreement justified murder, that religious law superseded democratic governance, that violence could reverse a democratic decision.
And his death showed that the greatest threat to Israel’s democracy came not from external enemies, but from extremism within. Disclaimer. This video presents historical events based on Israeli government records, trial transcripts, eyewitness accounts, documented speeches, contemporary news coverage, and verified historical sources.
This content is for educational purposes.
