Chronik eines Mordes

„Better the pain of peace than the horrors of war“

For the past 30 years, Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai has immersed himself in one topic in particular: the assassination of the Israeli prime minister Yitzchak Rabin by a far-right law student and member of the settler movement during a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Gitai’s filmography is extensive, and he has presented his comprehensive archive in several exhibitions. In 2016 his multimedia play Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold was performed at the international Festival d’Avignon. Now he is working on a version for the Burgtheater for two female actors, musicians and a 30-strong choir, with Bibiana Beglau and Dörte Lyssewski in the lead roles.

Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination marked a turning point in Israeli politics, as it caused the peace process between Israel and Palestine to grind to a sudden halt. These peace talks had culminated in the two Oslo Accords and the joint awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Rabin, his foreign minister Shimon Peres and the PLO chairman Yasser Arafat. After Rabin’s murder, Shimon Peres took over as prime minister, but lost the elections to Benjamin Netanyahu only six months later. And it was Netanyahu’s opposition to that very peace policy to which he owed his rise to power and subsequent seven terms as prime minister. “Ever since Rabin’s assassination a quarter-century ago, Israelis and Palestinians have never again addressed the complexity of their relationship.” (Amos Gitai)