Supporters of former premier Benjamin Netanyahu are organizing a demonstration next Tuesday that will be held in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv – only they aren’t calling it Rabin Square; they’re calling it “Kings of Israel Square,” as the site was known before former premier Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated and the square renamed in his honor.
The demonstration is being titled: “A protest of the National Camp – We’re going to maintain a Jewish and democratic Israel.” Among those who will be attending are MKs Tzachi Hanegbi, Ofir Akunis, Amir Ohana, May Golan, Itamar Ben Gvir, Shlomo Karhi, and Galit Distal-Atbaryan.
However, MK Akunis has told the organizers that he will not be attending the demonstration if the wording of the invitation is not changed back to “Rabin Square.”
“I am committed to taking determined action in the streets and squares in order to strengthen public support for the Likud,” Akunis wrote on Twitter, “and also, in order to expose the damage being done to the country by the Bennett/Lapid/Abbas government.”
“Having noted the incorrect wording that appears on the invitation to this event at Rabin Square, I requested that the address of the demonstration be amended to the name by which it has been officially known since 1995. I made it clear to the organizers that changing the wording was a condition for my participation in the event,” he added. “We are fiercely opposed to the positions of the left-wing camp, but the memory of the dead prime minister Rabin is not something that is subject to any partisan dispute.”
MK Yoav Kisch also objected to the change in name, writing on Twitter, “Rabin Square. Yitzhak Rabin of blessed memory, an Israeli prime minister who was murdered by an evil person. Yigal Amir the murderer, a despicable person, may he rot in prison for the rest of his life.”
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai added, “The demonstration is to be held in Rabin Square, named after Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who was murdered there. Using any other name for this square is utterly despicable and to be condemned.”