Israel marks 15 years since Rabin killing

TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Israel Monday marked the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin with calls to keep his legacy alive.

Rabin was shot by a right-wing Jewish extremist at a rally in Tel Aviv Nov. 4, 1995, but Monday is the anniversary according to the Jewish calendar.

"Rabin is not with us today, but his spirit and legacy continue to guide us, and with that his hope that there will be an equal, united, and inventive society here," Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the military chief of staff, said at an observance at the Rabin Center in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Post reported. Rabin's daughter, Dalia, and sister, Rachel, were in attendance.

Ashkenazi said the army makes a point of telling the story of Rabin's assassination because today's soldiers were only 5 years old when it happened.

Dalia Rabin said current soldiers "do not remember where they were on that terrible night, on that day that Israeli democracy was almost murdered. For 1.5 million students the assassination is but a page in their history books and is a vague incident in the distant past."