PM Bennett at Rabin memorialז"ל
PM Bennett at Rabin memorialז"לKnesset Channel

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke Monday at the special Knesset session in memory of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the 26th anniversary of his assassination.

"In the 26 years that have passed since the assassination, I have returned many times to that night in the Kings of Israel Square. I hope that since the assassination we have learned how dangerous violence is and how much it is a clear red line. I hope we also learned that we cannot silence entire populations in our society, we cannot defame an entire population if an individual within that public commits a crime. Neither the right nor the religious assassinated Rabin. Yigal Amir assassinated Rabin," Bennett said.

He added, "I mainly hope that we have learned that if we take revenge on each other, if hatred can permeate and divide us, if generalizations can take over the discourse between us, we will lose everything we all have, and G-d forbid we will lose our state. The State of Israel is not to be taken for granted, we must not only work to strengthen our security on the outside, but also to understand that we have lost our home from the inside in the past."

"After two years in the army duing which I was without a kippah, I returned the kippah to my head in the days after the horrific murder. I felt that was the proper answer to the attack against the kippah wearers," Bennett said.

"There are two lessons arise from the murder, one is that even if you are one hundred percent sure of the rightness of your way, there are lines which you do not cross, no matter what. Violence is out of the question. The second lesson is that groups in Israel must not be tarred because of the actions of an individual. The point is that we need to learn to manage the debate between the left and the right and what the boundaries of the debate are.

"The government we formed, my friends and I, about four months ago, is actually establishing one of these lessons. One that strengthens commonalities, connecting and unifying us - and it is greater than any party. We want all Israeli citizens to feel welcome. whether they have representation in the coalition and do not have representation in the coalition," Bennett concluded.