Washington, DC -- On the 20th anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Americans for Peace Now (APN) is joining four other progressive American Jewish organizations to take joint action to honor Rabin’s legacy of peace, security, political pragmatism, democracy, and tolerance.

The groups, Americans for Peace Now, Ameinu, J Street, the New Israel Fund and T’ruah, are today issuing a joint statement vowing to continue on Rabin’s path, to help provide Israelis and Palestinians with hope for the security, freedom and dignity that they so deeply desire and deserve.

In memoriam of the 20th anniversary of the assassination, we believe that uniting progressive Americans in a solemn demand for a peaceful and democratic Israel has never been more necessary.

Please join us for a briefing call on Wednesday, November 4th, at 3:00 PM (Eastern Time) with the leaders of APN, the New Israel Fund, J Street, Ameinu and T’ruah. The call, on the anniversary of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, will bring together the five organizations to help unite uniting progressive Americans in a solemn demand for a peaceful and democratic Israel has never been more necessary.

The call will bring together Daniel Sokatch, the CEO of the News Israel Fund, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the President of J Street, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the Executive Director of T’ruah, and Debra DeLee, the President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now.

The call will be moderated by JJ Goldberg of the Forward.

To join the call, RSVP here, and you will receive a call-in number with an individual pin.

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On the 20^th anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Americans for Peace Now is joining four other progressive American Jewish organizations to take joint action to honor Rabin’s legacy of peace, security, political pragmatism, democracy, and tolerance. The five groups, Americans for Peace Now, Ameinu, J Street, the New Israel Fund and Truah, are today jointly issuing the following statement. The heads of the five organizations will discuss the statement, their collaboration and other related issues on a conference call next Wednesday, November 4^th, the yahrzeit of Rabin’s assassination. Further joint action will follow and be announced next Wednesday.

Israel’s Shalom Achshav (Peace Now) last week produced a new video, formatted as a “trailer,” which wars against the bi-national state reality that Israel’s right wing is imposing on the country by its diplomatic intransigence. The video, depicting the brutality that is a bi-product of a bi-national state, is hard to watch, but it does reflect that reality-in-the-making in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

On the eve of the 20^th anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, please join APN for a briefing call on Monday, November 2^nd, at 2:00 pm Eastern Time, with Dan Ephron, the author of a new investigative book on the murder.

In Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel, Ephron tells the parallel stories of Rabin and his assassin, Yigal Amir, during the two years leading up p to the murder, and sets the scene to the two decades that followed.

Ephron is an award-winning writer, who has served as the Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek and the Daily Beast, and now lives in New York City.

The details of the call are as follows:

As we mark the 20th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, APN supporters in the Washington DC metropolitan area are invited to join us on November 5th at 7PM at the DC JCC, for an evening of conversation and remembrance honoring Rabin, his legacy and leadership. Particularly at this time, it is important to commemorate an Israeli leader who had the courage to lead his people toward peace.

Led by the JCRC of Greater Washington, and co-sponsored by Americans for Peace Now, the evening will feature Knesset Member Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin, a former assistant to Rabin, a current member of the Zionist Union, and a passionate activist for Rabin's legacy. 

For more information on this event and to RSVP click here: http://www.jcouncil.org/site/Calendar/1759717568?view=Detail&id=109901

Like all Israelis of my generation, I remember the night of Nov. 4, 1995.

Having just heard from the news desk editor at Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had been shot, I called Palestinian officials for reaction. I was Haaretz’s Palestinian affairs correspondent at the time and was on the phone with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat when I heard on Israel Radio that Rabin’s spokesman was about to make a statement. As Eitan Haber hushed the crowed, I started translating for Erekat: “The government of Israel announces in dismay, in great sadness, and in deep sorrow, the death of Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by an assassin, tonight in Tel Aviv.”