How One Night In Tel Aviv Changed Middle East History Forever

Thirty years ago, hope stood on a stage in Tel Aviv and was silenced by two gunshots.

Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Prime Minister and the man who dared to dream of peace with the Palestinians, was gunned down by one of his own. To the right-wing Israeli extremist who pulled the trigger, Rabin's vision was betrayal. The bullets ended a life, and also tore through a fragile peace process.

Now, three decades later, the conflict Yitzhak Rabin tried to end still burns, unresolved.

The Assassination That Shattered A Dream

On the evening of November 4, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin stood before a crowd of over 1 lakh Israelis at a peace rally in Tel Aviv's Kings of Israel Square (later renamed Rabin Square). Despite warnings, Rabin refused to wear a bulletproof vest, believing no fellow citizen could pose such a mortal threat.

Moments after delivering a hopeful speech urging Israelis to "make peace, not just sing about it," the Prime Minister was shot at close range by Yigal Amir, a 25-year-old Israeli law student and extremist. As reported by The Guardian, Rabin was shot twice and later died in the hospital.

This was the first time in Israel's history that a sitting Prime Minister was murdered. And for many, it felt like peace had died with him.

Yigal Amir: The Assassin

Yigal Amir was a 25-year-old law student at Bar-Ilan University with strong religious and nationalist views. A devout, hardline Zionist, Amir viewed Rabin as a traitor for his willingness to 'concede' land to the Palestinians under the Oslo accords. He believed Rabin's plans endangered the Jewish state.

Amir justified his actions by citing a religious concept known as "din rodef," which permits the killing of someone who poses a threat to Jewish lives. He acted alone, without the support or approval of any religious authority. He believed Rabin was a rodef, a pursuer who endangered Jewish lives, and thus, in his own eyes, a legitimate target.

Before the assassination, Amir attended multiple public events where Rabin was present, waiting for the perfect moment. On the day of the shooting, he hid his Beretta 84F semi-automatic pistol and ammunition and mingled with the crowd.

Then, as the Prime Minister stepped off the stage, the young extremist stepped out from the shadows and fired two shots at point-blank range.

Within an hour and a half, Rabin was pronounced dead.

Yigal Amir was arrested at the scene and later convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment plus an additional 14 years.

His act, horrifying as it was, achieved exactly what he intended - the end of the peace process Rabin championed.

Oslo Accords

The Oslo peace process was a series of secret negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) that began years before the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. This process was the result of decades of conflict and cautious talks.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza, which led to ongoing tensions and conflict. The First Intifada, a Palestinian uprising from 1987 to 1993, showed that military force alone could not solve the conflict.

In 1993, secret talks held in Oslo, Norway, led to a historic agreement. On September 13, 1993, Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn in front of US President Bill Clinton. They declared an end to "blood and tears," signalling a new hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Oslo Accords were the first direct agreements between Israel and the PLO. They set the stage for a possible two-state solution and aimed to create a framework for peace after many years of fighting. The first agreement, known as Oslo I, included mutual recognition: the PLO recognised Israel's right to exist in peace and security, while Israel recognised the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

Oslo I also created the Palestinian Authority, which was given limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel agreed to withdraw its military forces from some areas, starting with Jericho and Gaza, and planned to hold democratic elections for the Palestinian Authority.

Two years later, in 1995, the Oslo II Accord expanded this agreement. It divided the West Bank into three areas with different levels of Palestinian and Israeli control. Area A was under full Palestinian civil and security control; Area B had Palestinian civil control but joint Israeli-Palestinian security control; and Area C remained under full Israeli control.

The Oslo II Accord also called for further Israeli withdrawal, Palestinian elections, and cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces to fight terrorism and maintain order.

Despite these advances, the peace process faced many challenges. Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem continued to grow, making it harder to create a united Palestinian state. Violence from extremist groups on both sides, including attacks and bombings, undermined trust. Political divisions deepened.

Among the Palestinians, Hamas rejected the Oslo peace process completely, calling it surrender and saying they would never accept any deal that involved giving up land to an Israeli state they believed should not exist.

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 was a major blow to the peace process.

Then Came Benjamin Netanyahu

Back in 1995, Benjamin Netanyahu was the leader of the opposition in Israel. He spoke at some of the most intense anti-Rabin rallies, where the former Prime Minister was harshly criticised and portrayed negatively, even being likened to a Nazi. At many protests, Rabin was compared to Yasser Arafat, with people putting a black-and-white Palestinian scarf (keffiyeh) around his head like Arafat wore.

The aftermath of Rabin's death saw Israel's political landscape shift sharply to the right. In the 1996 elections, Netanyahu won a narrow victory over Shimon Peres. This was a move away from Rabin's peace efforts.

Fast forward to today, Netanyahu, now Israel's Prime Minister, leads a government waging a harsh military campaign in Gaza following a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

Almost two years since, the war has killed over 53,000 Palestinians, with many civilians, women and children, among the casualties. The Gaza Health Ministry has also reported more than 109,000 injured.

What If Yitzhak Rabin Had Lived?

Reports at the time suggested that had Rabin lived, he would most likely have defeated Netanyahu in the 1996 elections, implying that the future of Israeli-Palestinian peace could have been very different.

After the famous handshake with Yasser Arafat in 1993, Rabin had said Zionism was no longer about expanding territory but about building a Jewish society based on traditional values combined with Western civilization.

Today's dominant settler movement has moved far from Rabin's approach, pushing to settle Gaza again and expanding settlements rapidly in the West Bank, while Palestinian communities face violence and displacement.

Rabin had always opposed the settlers' ideology, calling many settlements "political" and a financial burden with no real security benefit. He cut settlement funding in his time, focusing resources on social programmes.

But today, under the Benjamin Netanyahu-government, settlers are empowered, and ideas once considered extreme, like expelling Palestinians, are openly discussed.

Some settlers argue Rabin betrayed Zionism by making peace with the PLO. They believe the entire land of Israel, including Gaza and the West Bank, should belong to Jews and support settlement expansion even in Gaza. Others, including Rabin's former press officer Uri Dromi, say this extreme view has hijacked Zionism, which Rabin defined as a realistic effort to maintain a Jewish state through negotiation, not exclusion.

A 2015 poll showed 76 per cent of Israelis regarded Rabin as "a respectable leader" and 55 per cent said he was missed, but only a third supported the Oslo Accords.