Peres: Israel still on Rabin's path

JERUSALEM, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The Israeli president and prime minister spoke at a ceremony Wednesday honoring Yitzhak Rabin and marking the 12th anniversary of his assassination.

Both President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the killing of Rabin, Israel's fifth prime minister, failed to deflect Israel from a path to peace, Ynetnews.com reported. The ceremony was held on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

"Today, more than ever, Israel continues along Rabin's path -- the path that will lead us to the sought after peace," Peres said.

Rabin was gunned down on Nov. 4, 1995, at a rally in Tel Aviv in support of the Oslo Accords. The killer, Yigal Amir, was an Orthodox Jew who opposed the agreement with the Palestinians.

Olmert suggested that Amir was motivated by "baseless hatred" and said that Israeli officials had been naïve to think that having a democracy protected them against political violence.

Rabin's grandson, Michael, talked of how he was studying for a civics test when his grandfather was assassinated. His son, Yuval, said Kadish, the prayer for the dead.