Rabin Square

Rabin Square is Tel Aviv’s main plaza, situated beside City Hall and closely associated with the city’s public life.[1] Its uses encompass political demonstrations, memorial gatherings, concerts, festivals, celebrations, and everyday recreation in an open space at a central location.[5][4] These activities coexist with permanent commemorative features, including the memorial at the site of Rabin’s assassination and Igael Tumarkin’s Holocaust and Resurrection monument.[1][6]

The square occupies approximately 17 dunams and took its recognizable form through a design conceived as a large, open rectangle.[7] City Hall stands alongside the plaza, while an ornamental pool occupies its southeastern edge.[8] The assassination memorial is on Solomon ibn Gabirol Street, between Tel Aviv City Hall and Gan Ha’ir, marking the location where Rabin was shot after leaving the 1995 rally.[2]

The relationship between the municipal building and the open plaza was part of the square’s architectural conception: the height of City Hall was intended to allow politicians and leaders to watch ceremonies and rallies below.[5] The square’s subsequent history includes both large political assemblies and less formal uses, from book events and public celebrations to people gathering around its restored pool.[8][4]

In 1925, Tel Aviv Municipality purchased 50 dunams of orchard land at what was then the city’s eastern edge, near Sumayl and Sarona, initially intending to construct a central municipal hospital there.[7] Patrick Geddes’s city plan marked a public square nearby, establishing a planning context for the later civic space.[7] Before the completed plaza existed, the orchard area hosted a protest meeting against the British White Paper in 1939.[4]

The municipality held a design competition in 1947, but the winning proposal was not built.[7] Architects Shimon Povzner and Avraham Yaski won the square project in 1952 with a proposal for a large, open rectangular space.[7] Implementation was delayed, and work on the square proceeded after construction of the adjacent municipal headquarters.[7] Architect Menachem Cohen won the competition for that building in 1957; City Hall was completed in 1964, the year also identified as the square’s establishment date.[5][7]

The plaza was known as Kings of Israel Square, or Kikar Malkhei Yisrael, before its renaming in Rabin’s memory.[8] A 1969 solidarity rally is probably identifiable as having taken place there, although the identification of that particular gathering’s location remains qualified.[9] The square later hosted the 1982 protest following the Sabra and Shatila massacre, remembered under the designation of the “400,000” demonstration.[4]

Memorial planning developed alongside the square’s civic role rather than beginning with Rabin’s assassination.[6] In 1951, the municipality decided to establish a memorial there, initially intended to commemorate Tel Aviv residents killed in the 1948 War of Independence.[6] Yaski and Povzner won the memorial-design competition, but the city’s plans for commemorating fallen soldiers subsequently changed.[6] Mayor Mordechai Namir then announced plans for a central Holocaust and Resurrection monument in the square, leading eventually to Tumarkin’s work.[6]

By November 1995, Kings of Israel Square was the setting for the large rally supporting Rabin’s government and its peace policy.[1] His murder at the conclusion of that gathering led to the plaza’s renaming as Rabin Square and its development as a permanent memorial site as well as a continuing venue for public assemblies.[2][8]

The November 4, 1995, rally supported Rabin and the peace agreements associated with the Oslo process.[10] The 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO aimed to create the Palestinian Authority and establish a framework for peace; the broader process was intended to lead toward peaceful disengagement and a two-state solution.[10][11] In the period after the agreements, terrorist attacks killed dozens, and many Israelis blamed Rabin and his government for the violence.[10]

Opposition to the agreements had generated fierce demonstrations and hostility toward the government and Rabin personally.[10] Anti-Oslo protests included posters depicting Rabin as a Nazi and slogans calling him a traitor, while some ultra-nationalist rabbis invoked the religious-law term “rodef” to argue that he could be killed in self-defense.[11] Against this atmosphere, the left-wing camp organized the November rally in support of Rabin and the peace agreements.[10]

More than 100,000 people attended the gathering at Kings of Israel Square.[2] Rabin and other politicians spoke about peace and a two-state solution, and the event concluded with singing associated with its message of peace.[3] Rabin joined Israeli singer Miri Aloni in “Shir LaShalom,” the “Song for Peace,” before leaving the rally.[3] His participation in the song became one of the remembered moments of his final public appearance.[2][10]

In his speech, Rabin linked peace to Jewish aspirations while acknowledging the forces opposing it: “Peace is not just a prayer. It is at first a prayer, but it is also the realistic aspiration of the Jewish people. But peace has its enemies, who are trying to harm us, to torpedo the peace.”[3] Another passage expressed the difficulty of the course he advocated: “Peace entails difficulties, even pain. Israel knows no path devoid of pain. But the path of peace is preferable to the path of war.”[12]

Before the assassination, Rabin had refused requests from his aides to wear a bulletproof vest, telling them, “If there comes a time when I would need a bulletproof vest, I no longer want to be prime minister of this country.”[3] After the rally, he walked toward his car, and Yigal Amir shot him from behind.[3] The shooting took place on the steps of Tel Aviv City Hall after Rabin had addressed the crowd in the square.[2]

Amir was a right-wing extremist who opposed Rabin’s peace initiative.[2] Rabin was taken to nearby Ichilov Hospital and died shortly after arriving.[3] A blood-stained sheet of paper bearing the lyrics of “Shir LaShalom” was found in his pocket.[2] The square where he had just spoken and sung was renamed in his honor after the assassination.[2]

In the days immediately following the assassination, teenagers gathered in the square, lit candles, and mourned Rabin.[13] These gatherings formed part of its transformation from the setting of his final rally into a place of public remembrance.[13] Graffiti written on walls around the assassination site after the murder has been preserved as part of the memorial environment.[1]

On the Sunday after the seven-day mourning period, tens of thousands of Israelis returned to the assassination site and sang songs of peace in Rabin’s honor.[14] By a November 14, 1995, tribute, the site was already being referred to as Yitzhak Rabin Square.[14] A permanent monument was built at the assassination site a year after the murder, adding a physical commemorative feature to the place where spontaneous mourning had begun.[1]

Rallies have been held annually in the square in Rabin’s memory, and thousands attend a memorial service there on the anniversary of his death.[1][2] Israel also established a national memorial day for Rabin on 12 Heshvan, the Hebrew-calendar date of his death.[2] The square’s annual gatherings and the national observance both commemorate Rabin, while the memorial at City Hall marks the specific location of his murder.[1][2]

On October 30, 2010, tens of thousands of Israelis assembled in Rabin Square for a commemoration of the assassination.[15] President Shimon Peres addressed the crowd and urged those present to sustain Rabin’s legacy.[15] A 2017 anniversary rally drew an estimated 85,000 people under the slogan “We are one people,” placing particular emphasis on national unity.[16] The framing of that gathering also revealed continuing disagreement about the message the square’s commemorations should convey.[16]

Rabin Square has hosted Hebrew Book Week, the start of the Tel Aviv Pride parade, and celebrations by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters.[4] After a victory over CSKA, supporters celebrated by jumping into the water at the square.[4] Alongside these occasions, concerts, festivals, and other public celebrations have made use of the plaza’s open space and central location.[5]

Political demonstrations remain another major use of the square.[4] On August 11, 2018, tens of thousands of Arab and Jewish Israelis marched from Rabin Square to the Tel Aviv Museum plaza to protest the Nation-State Law.[17] Demonstrators called for equality, justice, and repeal of the law, and the march concluded peacefully with speeches outside the museum.[17] The event used the square as an assembly and departure point, with its concluding gathering taking place at a separate civic venue.[17]

The southeastern pool provides a different setting within the larger plaza, with water, plants, fish, and seating rather than the expansive space used for mass events.[8] Before restoration, the original ornamental pool had stood empty and neglected for years.[8] A renovation project begun in late July 2010 included water filters, vegetation, landscaping, irrigation, paving, and new furniture.[5] The renovated corner opened to the public in December before the publication of a 2011 account.[5]

During that work, high concrete walls were cut down and converted into seating.[8] Water-filtering systems designed to use less electricity and chlorine were installed, and aquatic plants and goldfish were introduced.[8] The central fountain was restored using a photograph from 1969 as a reference.[8] The completed area included a pool, a fountain, plants, fish, and wooden seating, adding a place for everyday use within the square.[8]

Later planning addressed infrastructure beneath and around the plaza.[7] A 2006 planning decision approved a five-level public underground parking facility of 6,000 square meters beneath the square.[7] In 2016, the municipality invited seven architectural firms to submit redesign proposals, but the judging and public-participation process had not been completed by the time of a 2020 report.[7]

Plans reported in 2020 called for a Green Line light-rail station with entrances on the west side near the ecological pool and at the Ibn Gabirol–David Hamelech intersection.[7] Construction preparation was expected to affect part of the square, raising concerns about access to the pool and the continuation of regular events, including Hebrew Book Week, Rabin commemorations, and demonstrations.[7] These were plans and concerns reported in 2020, rather than an account of the square’s present condition.[7]

The Rabin Memorial, created by sculptor Yael Ben-Artzi, consists of 16 basalt stones brought from the Golan Heights.[1] Set into the earth at different heights, the stones symbolize Rabin’s roots and deep connection to the land.[1] Red lighting illuminates them from below, and their arrangement evokes an earthquake and the political and social upheaval caused by the assassination.[1] The broken-rock imagery also connects the monument’s physical form to the rupture associated with the murder.[2]

The memorial stands on Solomon ibn Gabirol Street between City Hall and Gan Ha’ir, marking the assassination site rather than simply commemorating Rabin elsewhere in the plaza.[2] Its placement, together with the preserved graffiti on surrounding walls, retains both a designed monument and traces of the public response after his death.[1] The monument was built a year after the November 1995 assassination.[1]

Tumarkin’s Holocaust and Resurrection monument predates the Rabin Memorial and arose from the municipality’s earlier plans for commemoration in the square.[6] In 1972, the municipality announced a closed competition for the work, and a jury selected Tumarkin’s proposal from ten entries.[6] The project involved an order for 50 tons of Corten steel and glass panels eight millimeters thick, while the city prepared the site with concrete piles extending six meters underground.[6]

The monument was inaugurated in 1975.[6] It is approximately nine meters high, with sides measuring 21 meters, and features an inverted pyramid over a yellow triangular base.[6] Its steel composition consists of a large inverted pyramid intersecting a smaller pyramid below.[18] The combination of the upper and lower forms gives the work its distinctive geometric structure.[18]

Tumarkin explained the design as a prison-like enclosure that opens upward: a visitor within the confined structure encounters bars widening toward the sky, light, and openness.[6] This movement from confinement toward openness formed part of his explanation of the monument’s commemorative meaning.[6] An official municipal Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony was held there for the first time in April 1976, although the ceremonial tradition weakened within a few years.[6]

The monument’s appearance changed over time as its original water-and-red-liquid effects and dark glass panels were removed.[6] Tumarkin undertook a renovation in 2010.[6] Its abstract design, its intended commemorative function, and its placement within a plaza also used for celebrations became subjects of sustained public debate.[6]

The location and design of Tumarkin’s monument faced substantial opposition before its inauguration.[6] Mayor Shlomo Lahat opposed placing it in the square because he regarded the site primarily as a place for public celebration.[6] Three Holocaust-survivor petitioners challenged the design choice and selection process; the High Court halted work for five weeks before rejecting their claims.[6] In early 1975, the city council approved construction in the square by a narrow vote.[6] The resulting debate concerned both the suitability of abstract commemoration and the relationship between a memorial and the plaza’s other public functions.[6]

Rabin commemorations have also prompted disagreement over emphasis and audience.[16] At the 2017 rally, the slogan “We are one people” and an emphasis on national unity replaced the event’s traditional focus on peace.[16] Some on the political left criticized that shift as glossing over the assassination, while other participants supported the broader unifying message.[16] The disagreement concerned how Rabin’s murder and legacy should be remembered at the site, rather than whether the square should continue to serve as a place of remembrance.[16]