A 1967 photograph of IDF Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin. Rabin led the IDF in the Six Day War of 1967. He is photographed here in full military uniform. After leaving the army, he entered politics where he served two terms of office as prime minister. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist who opposed his policies of peace.
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Yitzhak Rabin - Born in Jerusalem in 1922, Yitzhak Rabin grew up in Tel Aviv in a Labour-Zionist household. He attended an agricultural school and after graduating, he volunteered for the Palmach, the commando unit of the Haganah, the underground army of the Jewish community during the British Mandate. After the establishment of the State in 1948, Rabin joined the IDF where he served for twenty-seven years, culminating in the position of chief of staff and leading the IDF to victory in the Six Day War.
Rabin became active in the Labour Party and was elected to the Knesset in 1973, and in 1974, following the collapse of Golda Meir's short-lived government, he became prime minister until the government was dissolved in 1977 and the Labour Party defeated. After serving as minister of defence from 1984-1990, Rabin was elected chair of the Labour Party in 1992 and became prime minister for a second term later that year.
Yitzhak Rabin played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which were responsible for creating the Palestinian National Authority and granting it partial control over parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Due to his work toward finding a settlement with the Palestinians, Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize together with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in 1994.
The Oslo Accords caused huge rifts between left and right in Israeli society. On November 4, 1995, Rabin participated in a mass rally in Tel Aviv in favour of the Oslo Accords. Minutes after the end of the rally, Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing extremist, Yigal Amir. Following his death, thousands of Israeli youth returned to the square in Tel Aviv where he had been killed and held nightly vigils. The name of the square was changed from the Kings of Israel Square to Rabin Square, and there is a memorial to Rabin next to the steps where he was killed. The Hebrew date of the assassination, Heshvan 12, became an official day of remembrance and mourning marked by all state institutions and schools.
