Fading memories

This evening I went to a gathering to commemorate the 9th anniversary of Itzhak Rabin's death. It took place at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv - a square known as The Kings of Israel Square, until Rabin was murdered there as he was leaving a peace rally, on November 4, 1995.

I went to last year's event during a visit to Israel, and was looking forward to going again. I went with my sister and a friend, and met up with a bunch of his friends, as well as my brother and his friends. I was very disappointed. As we approached the place (which according to the event's MC was attended by 100,000 people, but according to the discerning eyes of the group was lucky if it had 20,000), my friend kept making cynical remarks about how commercialized it's become, and sadly, he was spot on. I was so distracted by the carnival atmosphere of what to me should have been a rather somber event, that I couldn't seem to pay attention to any of the speakers. Some of the singers that performed seemed to be there to promote their latest album, rather than paying their respects with appropriate music, and the whole thing just saddened me, and not because of its subject.

As we were leaving, I commented that next year's event will be much better, because 10 years is a nice round number, and a good number for marketing. It's a lot easier to get excited, for lack of a better word, by the mention of the words "decade", and "assassination".

I hope that next year's event is better because we've accomplished something, and because all of the work that Rabin did deserves to be both remembered and continued.

Posted by raptorgirl at October 30, 2004 06:34 PM