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Nobel Peace Prize · 1994
Yitzhak Rabin
A general who led Israel's army in 1967, then signed peace deals with the Palestinians and Jordan, and was killed for it.
The Nobel citation: “for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East”
- Born
- March 1, 1922, Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)
- Died
- November 4, 1995, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Shared with
- Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres
Peace prize
1994
Shared with 2 other laureates.
Age that year
72years
Born in 1922.
Sources cited
25
Fact-checked September 24, 2026.
- He planned to become a water engineer, but at 16 he was handed a rifle, as he recalled in his Nobel lecture.
- In 1945 he helped plan and lead the Palmach raid that freed 208 Jewish refugees, many of them Holocaust survivors, from Britain's Atlit detention camp.
- As army chief of staff he led Israel's forces in the 1967 Six-Day War; 26 years later he shook hands with PLO leader Yasser Arafat at the White House.
- He was Israel's first native-born prime minister, and he remains the only one to have been assassinated.
- In 1977 he gave up the race for prime minister after it emerged that he and his wife kept a US bank account, then illegal for Israelis.
The breakthrough
From armed force to negotiation: the Oslo Accords and peace with Jordan
For decades Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) refused to recognize each other. Rabin, a former army chief who had long opposed talking to the PLO, changed course. When he learned of secret talks in Norway, he let them continue despite his doubts and made them Israel's official channel. In letters dated 9 September 1993, the PLO recognized Israel's right to exist in peace and renounced terrorism, and Israel accepted the PLO as the representative of the Palestinians. On 13 September, at the White House, the Declaration of Principles was signed and Rabin shook Arafat's hand. The deal worked like a staged home renovation. Instead of fighting over the whole house at once, both sides agreed to start with a few rooms. A Palestinian Authority would take over self-government in parts of Gaza and the West Bank, beginning with Gaza and Jericho in 1994, for an interim period of five years. The hardest questions, borders, refugees and Jerusalem, were left for later talks. Oslo II in 1995 divided the West Bank into zones of Israeli and Palestinian control. Progress with the Palestinians also opened the door to Jordan. After years of secret contacts with King Hussein, Rabin signed a peace treaty in October 1994 that fixed the border between the two countries.[1],[11],[14],[15],[16],[17]
“The one radical solution is peace.”
What it meant for humanity
Rabin's peacemaking changed how Israelis and Palestinians saw each other, even though it did not end the conflict. For the first time, the national movement of the Palestinians and the State of Israel formally recognized each other, and a Palestinian Authority took charge of daily life in Gaza, Jericho and later other Palestinian cities. As Israeli troops pulled back from those cities, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces fell sharply. The human rights group B'Tselem counted 155 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied territories in 1993 and 18 in 1997. The treaty with Jordan ended nearly half a century of hostility and fixed the border between the two countries. Three decades later the two states were not at war, though relations had cooled. Rabin's earlier record as a peacemaker included the 1975 interim agreement with Egypt, which he saw as the first piece of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace. His first government also ordered the 1976 Entebbe raid to rescue the passengers of a hijacked Air France flight held in Uganda. In his second term his government moved money from settlements and defense toward education, welfare, poorer towns and Arab communities. The gains were fragile. Suicide bombings by Palestinian groups that rejected Oslo killed more Israeli civilians inside Israel than before, and after his murder the process stalled. By 2000 it had broken down into a new round of violence. After his murder, crowds of Israelis, religious and secular, Jews and Arabs, gathered to mourn him, and he became a lasting symbol of the hope for peace.
- In the 1993 exchange of letters, the PLO recognized Israel's right to exist in peace and renounced terrorism, and Israel accepted the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.[11],[16]
- The Israel-Jordan peace treaty of 26 October 1994, the fruit of years of contacts between Rabin and King Hussein, ended nearly half a century of hostility and fixed the border.[11],[17],[25]
- After Israeli forces redeployed under the Oslo process, B'Tselem recorded a sharp fall in Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the occupied territories: 155 in 1993 and 18 in 1997.[21]
- His first government signed the 1975 Sinai Interim Agreement with Egypt, which Rabin later saw as the first step toward the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.[3],[9]
- In June 1976 his government ordered Operation Entebbe, a long-range raid to rescue the passengers of a hijacked Air France plane held in Uganda.[3],[9]
Impact in numbers
Rabin's contribution was political, not technical, so this profile makes no numerical claims. Turning Oslo or the Jordan treaty into a count of lives saved would require guessing how many people would have died without them, and the answer is unknowable. What can be documented: Israel and the PLO recognized each other for the first time, a Palestinian Authority was created, and Israel and Jordan ended a 46-year state of war with a treaty that still stood three decades later. Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli forces fell sharply after troops redeployed, while suicide bombings by opponents of the accords killed more Israelis than before. The final agreement Rabin sought never came. His lasting impact is the precedent he set: a general who had commanded troops in 1948 and led the army in 1967 concluded that only negotiated peace could protect lives, and was killed for that choice.
Peace
No number is given here on purpose. Some contributions cannot be counted honestly, and we would rather describe them than invent a figure.
The double edge
Rabin spent most of his life as a soldier, and his record includes serious harm to Palestinians. In 1948, as operations officer of the offensive that captured Lydda and Ramle, he took part in the expulsion of tens of thousands of Arab residents; according to a 1979 New York Times report, Israeli censors cut his own account of it from his memoirs. As defense minister in 1988 he ordered troops to use force and beatings against Palestinian demonstrators in the First Intifada, a policy the US State Department criticized. His first government also approved the settlement at Kadum, which, by the Rabin Center's own account, paved the way for wider settlement he had opposed. Oslo itself remains contested: some Israelis saw it as a betrayal, Palestinian critics such as Edward Said argued it gave Palestinians too little, and suicide bombings by Palestinian groups that rejected it killed many Israeli civilians. The accords never reached a final settlement.
- Major
Expulsions from Lydda and Ramle, 1948
Rabin was operations officer and deputy commander of Operation Danny, which captured Lydda and Ramle in July 1948. Historian Benny Morris found that Rabin signed an order to expel Lydda's inhabitants quickly, regardless of age, and tens of thousands of residents were forced out on foot. In 1979 the New York Times reported that Israeli censors had removed Rabin's eyewitness account of the expulsion from his memoirs.[7],[18],[19]
- Major
Beatings policy in the First Intifada
In January 1988 Defense Minister Rabin said security forces should use force, strength and blows to stop violent demonstrations. Within days Palestinian youths were hospitalized with broken bones, and the US State Department rejected the argument that beating demonstrators was more humane than shooting them, saying both were wrong. B'Tselem counted 290 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces, most by gunfire, in 1988 and 286 in 1989.[10],[20],[21]
- Moderate
Samu raid, 1966
As chief of staff, Rabin approved a November 1966 reprisal raid on the Jordanian village of Samu, in which many Jordanian soldiers and civilians were killed.[13]
- Moderate
An unfinished and contested peace
The Oslo Accords left borders, refugees and Jerusalem unresolved, and Palestinian critics such as Edward Said argued they gave Palestinians too little. Attacks inside Israel, mostly suicide bombings, killed 118 Israeli civilians in 1994-1997, against 37 in the previous four years. By 2000 the process had collapsed. His second government also deported 415 Hamas members.[3],[11],[16],[21]
Against the odds
Rabin was not a refugee. He was born in Jerusalem, but into a Jewish community whose safety was never assured. His parents were born in the Russian Empire, in today's Ukraine and Belarus. Under British rule, Jewish communities faced Arab riots and, in the late 1930s, an Arab revolt; at 16 Rabin was handed a rifle to defend himself. In May 1939, as Nazi Germany brought more Jews under its control, Britain issued a White Paper that sharply restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine. After the war, Britain intercepted more than 50,000 Jewish refugees at sea and held them in camps. In 1945 Rabin helped plan and lead a raid that freed detained refugees from the Atlit camp, where he met Holocaust survivors face to face for the first time. In 1946 the British arrested him with his father and held him for five months. In 1948 he led a brigade fighting to break the siege of Jerusalem, and dozens of his soldiers were killed. His life ended in a different kind of danger. After months of incitement in which protesters portrayed him in an SS uniform, a Jewish extremist opposed to Oslo shot him dead at a peace rally in 1995.
1938
War
At 16, as the Arab revolt against British rule and Jewish settlement worsened, he was handed a rifle to defend himself. He had wanted to become a water engineer, but, as he later put it, he was compelled to take up the gun.[2],[15]
1939
Discrimination
Britain's 1939 White Paper sharply limited Jewish immigration to Palestine just as Nazi Germany was bringing more Jews under its control; after the war Britain intercepted more than 50,000 Jewish refugees at sea.[24]
1946
Imprisonment
Arrested with his father in the British crackdown of 29 June 1946, known as Black Sabbath, and held for five months.[6]
1948
War
He commanded the Harel Brigade in the fight for besieged Jerusalem; dozens of his soldiers were killed in the battles to break into the city.[7]
1995
Other
Assassinated by Yigal Amir, a Jewish extremist opposed to the Oslo Accords, after months of protests in which he was depicted in an SS uniform and some ultranationalist rabbis argued he could be killed.[12],[22],[23]
Jewish background
Rabin was born in Jerusalem to Jewish parents, both born in the Russian Empire, who settled in Palestine with the Third Aliyah, the wave of Jewish immigration after World War I. His father, Nehemiah, had lived in the United States and volunteered for the Jewish Legion. His mother, Rosa Cohen, a rabbi's daughter, became a Labor Zionist leader in the Haganah and Tel Aviv politics. He was raised in socialist-Zionist schools and youth movements and was not religious. In his Nobel lecture he said he spoke for generations of Israelis, for Jewish figures from Maimonides to Einstein, and for the millions who died in the Holocaust, and he closed with a traditional Jewish blessing.[2],[5],[14],[15]
Key dates
March 1, 1922
Born in Jerusalem to Rosa Cohen and Nehemiah Rabin, Jewish immigrants of the Third Aliyah.[1],[5]
1937
Enters Kadoorie Agricultural High School, where he trains under the Haganah's Yigal Allon; he graduates with distinction in 1940.[3],[5],[15]
1941
Joins the newly founded Palmach, the Haganah's strike force, and fights alongside the British in Lebanon.[1],[6],[15]
1945
Helps plan and lead the Palmach raid that frees 208 detained Jewish refugees, many of them Holocaust survivors, from the British camp at Atlit.[6],[15]
1948
Commands the Harel Brigade on the Jerusalem front, then serves as operations officer of the offensive that captures Lydda and Ramle.[3],[7]
1967
As IDF chief of staff since 1964, commands Israel's forces in the Six-Day War.[3],[8]
1968
Retires after 27 years of military service and becomes Israel's ambassador to the United States.[3],[14]
June 3, 1974
Becomes Israel's first native-born prime minister; his government signs the 1975 Sinai Interim Agreement and orders the 1976 Entebbe rescue.[3],[9],[15]
1977
Withdraws as Labor's candidate for prime minister after a US bank account he and his wife kept, illegal at the time, comes to light.[9],[14]
1988
As defense minister, meets the First Intifada with force and beatings, then concludes that force alone cannot end it.[10],[20]
September 13, 1993
Prime minister again since 1992, he shakes hands with Yasser Arafat at the White House signing of the Oslo Declaration of Principles.[3],[11],[16]
October 14, 1994
Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East.[1],[4]
October 26, 1994
Rabin and King Hussein mark the signing of the Israel-Jordan peace treaty at the Wadi Araba border crossing.[14],[17]
November 4, 1995
Shot dead by a Jewish extremist as he leaves a peace rally in Tel Aviv attended by about 100,000 people.[1],[12],[22]
Sources
- 1.Yitzhak Rabin - Facts · NobelPrize.org (Nobel Prize Outreach)
- 2.Yitzhak Rabin - Nobel Lecture · NobelPrize.org (from Nobel Lectures, Peace 1991-1995, World Scientific, 1999), 1994
- 3.Yitzhak Rabin - Biographical · NobelPrize.org (from Les Prix Nobel 1994, Nobel Foundation, 1995), 1995
- 4.The Nobel Peace Prize 1994 - Press release · Norwegian Nobel Committee / NobelPrize.org, 1994
- 5.1922: Birth, childhood and education · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 6.1941: A Combatant and a Commander in the Palmach · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 7.1948: A Commander during the War of Independence · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 8.1967: The Six-Day War · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 9.1974: Prime Minister of Israel, first term · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 10.1984: Minister of Defense · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 11.1992: Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, Second Term · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 12.1995: Assassination of the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 13.1964: Chief of Staff of the IDF · Yitzhak Rabin Center
- 14.Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995) · Jewish Virtual Library (American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise)
- 15.Yitzhak Rabin · Wikipedia
- 16.The Oslo Accords and the Arab-Israeli Peace Process · Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State
- 17.Remarks by President Clinton, King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Rabin of Israel at Signing of Treaty of Peace · The White House, Office of the Press Secretary (Clinton White House archive), 1994
- 18.Rabin Won't Comment · Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1979
- 19.Lydda, 9-13 July 1948 · Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (Institute for Palestine Studies)
- 20.New Israeli Policy Stresses Beatings, Not Bullets · Los Angeles Times (Dan Fisher), 1988
- 21.1987-1997: A Decade of Human Rights Violations (Information Sheet, January 1998) · B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 1998
- 22.1995: Israeli PM shot dead (On This Day) · BBC News, 1995
- 23.This week in Jewish history: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin assassinated · World Jewish Congress, 2020
- 24.Holocaust Survivors and the Establishment of the State of Israel (May 14, 1948) · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
- 25.Three decades after their historic treaty, Jordan and Israel are not at war - but nor are they at peace · The National (Khaled Yacoub Oweis), 2024
Fact-checked on September 24, 2026 by a separate AI fact-checking pass that re-opened the sources, with 10 corrections made. How we check
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