קטע אקטואליה באדיבות המהדורה האנגלית של עיתו " האר"
EZ – אקטואליה Public officials skip Rabin ceremony at President's Residence
By Amiram Barkat
The daughter of slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin said she was satisfied with the memorial ceremony in his honor that was held in the President's Residence yesterday, even though many public officials stayed away due to the scandal surrounding President Moshe Katsav, who is under investigation for rape and other offenses .
"It's clear that public figures hesitated to come to the event," said Dalia Rabin- Pelossof, adding that perhaps it should have been held elsewhere .
"But altogether," she said, "the ceremony was conducted in a dignified way and no harm was done to my father's memory ". Today is Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day, marking 11 years since Rabin's assassination . Some 160 people said they were planning to attend the state memorial ceremony slated to take place today near Rabin's grave in the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem .
Only about 20 of the 600 VIPs invited to yesterday's ceremony ended up attending, including one minister, one chief rabbi and three MKs .
Several public figures cancelled at the last minute, including Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, Ministers Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Avi Dichter and Rafi Eitan .
The paucity of public officials was particularly striking since this is the first year that the government gave the event the status of a state ceremony .
However, overall attendance exceeded last year's. Some 270 people, including dozens of pupils from a Jerusalem school who were invited two days before the event, took part in this year's ceremony, compared to 200 the year before. This year was also the first time that all the Rabin family members attended .
They had previously boycotted the event to protest Katsav's 2001 pardon of Margalit Har-Shefi, a friend of jailed assassin Yigal Amir who was convicted for not reporting what she knew about plans to assassinate Rabin .
The Knesset held a special session yesterday in honor of Rabin, and schools across the country held their own ceremonies. A week of Jewish textual study and discussions of leadership in honor of Rabin will close Saturday night with a rally in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv .
קטע אקטואליה באדיבות המהדורה האנגלית של עיתו " האר"
VOCABULARY
מושל , נגיד – Governor הרוג , שנהרג – slain
מחסור , צמצו – paucity מסופק , מרוצה , שבע רצו – satisfied בולט במיוחד - particularly striking טקס אזכרה - memorial ceremony
מעמד , סטטוס – status לכבודו , לזכרו - his honor כולל , מקי – overall בית , מגורי – Residence
עולה על , גובר – exceeded פקיד רשמי , נושא משרה ציבורית – officials תריסר – dozen שערוריה , סקנדל scandal
לקחו חלק - took part מקי , סובב – surrounding
להחרי – boycotted תחת חקירה , נחקר under investigation
להפגי - protest עבירה , התקפה ( בהקשר אחר ג פשע , עלבו –) offense
הורשע - convicted דמות ציבורית - public figures
חנינה ( בהקשר אחר סליחה –) pardon היססו – hesitated
ישיבה , מושב , פגישה – session במקו אחר – elsewhere
מנהיגות leadership מודר" , מנוהל – conducted
מכובד – dignified לא נרג כל נזק - no harm was done
רצח , התנקשות – assassination להיות נוכח – attend
מתיעד ( עתיד להתקיי –) slated רב ראשי - chief rabbi
חבר כנסת , MKs - Member of Knesset