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Tuesday, 14 November, 2000, 15:43 GMT
Leah Rabin: Israeli figurehead
![]() Leah Rabin campaigned for the peace process
Leah Rabin became a well-known public figure following the assassination of her husband, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
After his death, Mrs Rabin became involved in campaigning internationally for the peace process that her husband had promoted. She was admired by many Israelis for her work, but accused by others of keeping open the wounds laid bare by Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. Campaigner Leah Rabin was born in the then German town of Koenigsberg (later part of Russia) in 1928 and emigrated to the British mandate of Palestine when she was a young child.
She had already met Yitzhak Rabin, who was an officer in the Palmach, and they married during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In 1974 her husband became the youngest Israeli prime minister, but his coalition crumbled three years later. Yitzhak Rabin returned to power at the head of a Labour government in 1992. One year later, he signed the Oslo peace accords with Yasser Arafat, and the two men were awarded the Nobel peace prize, together with Shimon Peres. Outspoken Mrs Rabin was at the peace rally where, in 1995, her husband was shot. After his assassination, she became an outspoken advocate of peace.
And she received the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in her home, later telling a German news magazine that he was "part of my family". In spite of suffering from the lung cancer that eventually killed her, Mrs Rabin campaigned for her husband's peace ideals until the very end. In September 2000 she criticised Prime Minister Ehud Barak - whom she once saw as Mr Rabin's political heir - for making too many concessions in the peace process. "I wanted to believe he is continuing along Yitzhak's path. I backed him all along the way. But after a year and a quarter I must confess, a big part of my hopes have been disappointed," she said.
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