By MICHAEL BACHNER 19 September 2023.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to not attend next month’s annual state ceremony in memory of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, according to multiple Hebrew media reports on Monday. It would be the first time any sitting premier boycotts the ceremony at the Great Leaders of the Nation’s Plot in Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery, as Netanyahu faces persistent protests against his hardline coalition at almost all public events he attends in Israel and abroad.

The ceremony, commemorating the left-wing leader who was assassinated in 1995 by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir, has increasingly become a battleground between Netanyahu and Rabin’s relatives, many of whom blame the current premier and then opposition leader for the polarized political climate that led to the murder, and who have increasingly accused him of once again stoking intense divisions in the country.

www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-for-sitti...rial-at-mount-herzl/