Yitzhak Rabin, twice Prime Minister of Israel, Defence Minister, Commander in Chief during the Six Day War, was assassinated here on November 4th 1995.
The Square
Rabin Square, formerly known as Kikar Malchey Israel (Israel Kings' Square), named after the late Yitzhak Rabin, is a large square in the center of Tel Aviv. Surrounded by the monumental City Hall Building from the north, , Iben Gvirol Street from the east, Frischman Street from the south and Chen Boulevard from the west, it was designed alongside the City Hall in 1964 by the architacts Yaski and Alexandroni. On the northern end of the square you can find another memorial sculpture designed by Israeli artist Yigal Tumerkin, in memory of the Holocaust victims.
It is the largest open public square in the city, and is typically used for large rallies, demonstrations, open-air art exhibitions, independence-day celebrations and so on. Until the early 1990's, it also served as a public exhibition ground for IDF field units (mostly tanks and heavy artillery), on Independance day.
The Assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
The square is famous for holding the peace rally on the night of November 5th 1995. The title of the rally was "Yes to Peace, No to Violence". This was the rally in which the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated by a single gunman. On the days following the event, thousands of Israelis gathered at the site to moarne over this national tragedy. Since then Israeli society has been trying to understand how such a tragic turn of events could have taken place in a democratic society.
The square has been renamed, and has been known since as Rabin's Square. A memorial was put up in memory of the Prime Minister (on the northeast corner of the square, underneath the City Hall). At the top of the stairs leading up to City Hall's entrance, Rabin's last speech is engraved in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
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The square is worth a stop to note this event that (sadly) changed the course of Israeli history and the peace process in a dramatic way. While subsequent events have called into question whether the Oslo process ever would have worked, Yitzhak Rabin, a warrior turned risk-taker for peace, was truly irreplaceable in Israeli political life. He was a leader with courage, willing to set out a vision ahead of his people and then lead them there, even at great costs. When is the last time we've seen THAT in the US or Western Europe.
When I first visited this site in 1997, the extensive chalk graffiti left by the tens of thousands of mourning young people, dubbed "the children of the candles," was still largely intact. Much of that is gone now, but a section has been preserved, including the giant word "slicha," or "forgive us."
Just a couple of weeks ago (November 2005), 200,000 Israelis gathered there to remember Yitzhak Rabin. This place still marks an open wound in Israeli life.