Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin NetanyahuReuters

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday sought to set the record straight with regards to the left’s accusations that he had been involved in a campaign of incitement that preceded the 1995 assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In a message on his Facebook page, Netanyahu called Rabin's killing a "shocking political murder that all of us condemn".

"Since the murder there have been continuous attempts to distort the historical truth and blame me for the incitement that preceded the killing," added Netanyahu, who also attached video clips taken before the assassination, showing him clearly condemning virulent statements against Rabin.

Netanyahu and his Likud party have often been accused by the left of taking part in the hate campaign that preceded Rabin's assassination.

Opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog repeated that claim last week, when he tweeted “the hatred is the same hatred, the incitement is the same incitement and the leader is the same leader” – a quote which he later repeated in his speech at a rally in Tel Aviv in memory of Rabin.

Jewish Home chairman and Education Minister Naftali Bennett sharply criticized Herzog for the tweet last week, saying, “Buji, that was dirty. Netanyahu never incited against Rabin. He opposed his views, definitely. But when protesters were calling Rabin a 'traitor', Netanyahu said: ‘He is wrong. He is not a traitor.’ Those are the facts. For 21 years you have been exploiting the murder in order to silence the right. It will not succeed.”

On Saturday, Herzog rejected Netanyahu’s post, telling Channel 10 News, “I truly believe that Netanyahu did not wish and did not think it would end in murder, but if I were him, I would have been wearing a sackcloth and ashes for the past 20 years, and repenting every year on the memorial day for Yitzhak Rabin, because he led a camp that did not stop [the incitement].”