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.

Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995

Mr Rabin was killed on 4 November 1995 by a right-wing Jew opposed to his policy of handing over land for peace.

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.

Mrs Rabin counted President Clinton among her friends

She was training to be a teacher in Tel Aviv when she decided to join the Palmach - an elite Jewish commando force fighting the British - and work on the group's newspaper.

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.

Leah Rabin said that Mr Arafat was part of the family

She criticised the then Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, accusing him of creating the violent climate in which her husband was killed.

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.