The New York Times · New York, New York · 6 November 1995

CP-1995-012

Some Arabs Deplore Killing; Others Rejoice

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JERUSALEM, Nov. 5 (Reuters) — The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel on Saturday underscored the political fault lines across the Middle East. While most Arab leaders condemned his killing, radical Palestinian groups rejoiced. In neighboring Jordan, King Hussein, who signed a peace deal with Mr.

Rabin ending decades of conflict, said the Prime Minister’s death was a “great personal blow.” President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt mourned Mr. Rabin as a man who fell from “treacherous bullets at the hands of extremists who are enemies of peace.” The chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasir Arafat, for years the sworn enemy of Mr.

Rabin until the Middle East peace settlement began, expressed shock and sorrow at his death. “I am very sad and shocked at this awful and terrible crime against one of the brave leaders of Israel and one of the peacemakers,” he said on Saturday at his Gaza headquarters. But P.L.O. officials said Mr.

Arafat would not attend the funeral on Monday for fear that his presence would provoke reaction from hard-liners. Syria made no official comment on the killing, but diplomats expected the Government to pursue a peace settlement with Israel. Syria has held peace talks with Mr. Rabin’s Government since 1991, although no tangible progress has been made.

Elsewhere, hard-line opponents of Mr. Rabin called his death by gunfire a fitting end. The Libyan Government news agency, Jana, described Mr. Rabin as a terrorist whose “hands were covered in the blood of the martyrs.” In Iran, President Hashemi Rafsanjani called the assassination “God’s warning to humanity.”

“We believe that whoever unsheathes the sword of tyranny will be killed by the same sword,” Mr. Rafsanjani said in a statement broadcast on the Iranian radio. In Lebanon today, a Muslim militant rally in Beirut to mourn the death of a Palestinian guerrilla leader turned into a celebration of Mr. Rabin’s slaying.

Thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian militants chanted, “Death to Israel!” The rally, attended by about 5,000 Palestinians and Lebanese, was called before Mr. Rabin’s assassination by the pro-Iranian Party of God to mourn the chief of the Islamic Holy War guerrilla group, Fathi Shiqaqi, who was gunned down in Malta 10 days ago.

The group had blamed the Israelis for the killing.

The leader of the Party of God, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said at the rally at a mosque: “It was God’s will that this meeting be held for two events: a painful one that hurt us and made our eyes cry, Shiqaqi’s martyrdom, and another cheerful event that made hearts happy and filled the streets until the morning, the death of the biggest of the terrorists of our time, Yitzhak Rabin.”

In the southern Lebanese city of Merj ’Uyun, the South Lebanon Army, Israel’s militia ally, declared two days of mourning in the Israeli-held border strip for Mr. Rabin. Palestinian guerrillas and refugees opposed to the P.L.O. took to the streets of the Ain Hilwe camp in southern Lebanon minutes after hearing news of Mr. Rabin’s death, chanting, “Rabin is gone!

Rabin is gone!” and dancing into this morning. The guerrillas fired machine guns and anti-tank rockets skyward.

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