From October 20 to November 19, 1995, I was in West Africa on a mission
sent by MASHAV and the International Institute - Histadrut to give
on-the-spot courses in two French-speaking countries, Benin and Togo. With
me was Horatio Kurland, a communications expert. The course subject: The
Role of Cooperative Organizations and Trade Unions in National
Development.
Friday, November 3 in Benin (formerly Dahomey) Today the closing ceremony
of the course in Cotonou, the capital city of Benin, took place in the
presence of representatives of the Government of Benin and the Embassy of
Israel, Ambassador Yaacov Revah, who is actually stationed in the Ivory
Coast. The event was taped for local television. Everyone praised the aid
the State of Israel gives Benin and its people. For me this was the
"closing of a circle": 22 years ago in 1973 I came here to conduct a
seminar as a representative of the State of Israel. As I arrived for the
opening ceremony, soldiers informed me that the seminar was cancelled.
Surprised and frightened, I quickly returned to the Embassy of Israel,
packed my suitcase and got on the first flight home.
Those were difficult days [in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War
between Israel and its Arab Neighbrs] when the nations of Africa, one
after the
other, broke off diplomatic relations.
At the closing ceremony I told the participants of those days. Then I was
the last Israeli emissary in Dahomey and today I am one of the first
Israeli emissaries in Benin after the renewal of diplomatic ties. (Dahomey
changed its name to Benin during this period.)
Saturday, November 4, Togo
It was 7pm on Saturday evening. We sat in the hotel room of the Ambassador
in Lome, the capital of Togo, and spoke about the opening course ceremony
that was to take place the following Monday. The television was tuned to
CNN and we watched a report of a huge demonstration going on in Tel Aviv.
We watched Yitzhak Rabin sing the Song of Peace. We watched as he happily
walked down the steps. And then the anguished cries: "The Prime Minister
has been shot!"
I looked at Ambassador Revah. He held his head in his hands and tears were
falling from his eyes and I saw his pain, his sadness and the sorrow which
had befallen the whole of Israel. Outside a hard rain began to fall as if
the heavens grieved with us.
Sunday, November 5
Every free moment I watched CNN and every other channel on the television
which broadcast news of the murder, the murderer and the repercussions of
the untimely death of that warrior for the peace and security of Israel,
Yitzhak Rabin, as they reverberated around the world. I was very moved by
the appearance and words of Henry Kissinger. In a shaken and emotional
voice, with tears in his eyes, he said: "Yitzhak Rabin was no visionary.
He studied the development of events, as the people of Israel did and
should continue to do. Rabin 'wrote the book' on coexistence in the Middle
East." Later I spoke on the phone with my wife Hanna in Israel. From her
choked tone I understood what was happening to all the citizens of Israel
in those moments.
Monday, November 6
At the opening ceremoney of the course, in the presence of tens of
participants and guests, we stood for a moment of silence in memory of he
who was Prime Minister of the State of Israel. We read the remarks of the
Israeli Ambassador who was unable to be present as planned and had already
returned to his permanent residence in the Ivory Coast. We listened to the
moving words of the Minister of Rural and Regional Development and Tourism
who spoke for the Government of Togo and who expressed "the pain and deep
sorrow that all Togolese feel at the tragic death of Yitzhak Rabin."
Course participants, one after the other, offered their condolences. We
received faxes and telegrams of condolence from participants in Benin. We
sent these words of condolence to the Embassy in Abidjan and to the
secretariat of the Histadrut in Israel. In the evening, in the hotel room,
after a full day of lectures, an emotional day on the side of the local
people too, I sat and watched television. Togolese television covered
events in Israel. The phone never stopped ringing. Friends and
acquaintances from Togo asked why so many people, young and old, sat on
the ground in the square where Rabin was shot, lit candles, cried and
quietly sang songs. Did they really love Rabin that much?
Saturday, November 11
To a meeting of the Shalom Club, comprised of graduates of training
courses in Israel, came many members, those who had been in Israel during
the 1970s and 80s along with those new members who participated in recent
years. Words of greeting and condolence were expressed and we stood for a
moment of silence in memory of Yitzhak Rabin and we sang "Hevenu shalom
aleychem" ("We bring you peace").
Yitzhak Rabin was "a warrior, a statesman and a peacemaker" according to
the announcer on CNN. Thus he will be etched deeply in the memories of the
people of Africa and the whole world. Only such a personality with the
international stature of Yitzhak Rabin could have brought us, Israelis, so
many miles from home, to bitter tears of sorrow each time we saw on
television any reminder of the murdered Prime Minister of Israel.