Let’s go and do some shopping in Tel Aviv, a good place to start is Gan Ha’ir shopping mall. The mix of stores is diverse and attractive. Alongside leading local brands there are also exclusive international brands. In addition, Gan Ha’ir meets the daily needs of the residents of the neighborhood, including: A premium supermarket , vegetable and fruit store, deli, sewing shop with laundry and dry cleaning services, hairdresser, manicure-pedicure and more.
The History Behind Gan Ha’ir Shopping Mall
The Gan Ha’ir Shopping Mall operates six days a week and has established itself as the meeting, entertainment, and shopping center of central Tel Aviv. The complex regularly hosts a variety of quality content events for children and the whole family such as food fairs, plays, and performances, workshops for babies and their parents, and a wide range of attractions that change throughout the year.
Sadly it is where the Former PM. Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. In 1925 Tel Aviv municipality bought the 50-acre orchard for 3,000 pounds from Ibrahim Shuki Effendi; a resident of the Arab village of Summayl. In fact, the orchard spread over the entire area where today is the Gan Ha’ir mall and Rabin Square is located. It was purchased with the purpose to erect a hospital; which will serve the developing city north. Eventually, the hospital construction plan was not implemented and the municipality tried to gain some profit from the orchard it now owned.
Finally, the shopping mall was built in 1981. The structure consists of two main parts: a mall and a tower – both rely on the octagonal shape as their design element. The mall borders on Ibn Gvirol Street in the east and Hadassah Street in the north. The mall has one commercial floor above the street level and another floor below it; a total of two commercial floors. In the center is an octagonal courtyard, open to the sky, and with a fountain. The roof of the mall serves as a free extension to the public. An underground car park is located west of the mall, below the residential tower.
The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Near the Gan Ha’ir Shopping Mall on the south end, one of the most important moments in modern Israel took place. Of course, I am referring to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin; which took place on 4 November 1995 at 21:42. In fact, it was just at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv. Now the assassin, an Israeli ultranationalist named Yigal Amir; radically opposed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s peace initiative; particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords. On my tours of Tel Aviv, I take my guests to the memorial dedicated to Rabin.
The Kempler Video
The Kempler video is a film made by Roni Kempler while standing initially at the crime scene at the northeast side of the Tel Aviv City Hall and later on the roof of the Gan Ha’ir shopping mall overlooking the crime scene before and during the assassination of Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995. To Emphasize the filmmaker Roni Kempler by profession an accountant; who was also an amateur photographer who frequently filmed events with his handheld video camera looking for special angles. Kempler’s video has been described as “essentially the only video documentation of the killing”.
The video shows Yigal Amir lounging about or sitting on a cement planter situated at the bottom of the stairs that officials; participating in the rally in support of Yitzhak Rabin’s policies; would pass by on their way back to their cars. At one point, Shimon Peres, the Foreign Minister; passed by Amir, greeting supporters. The video then shows Rabin descending a stairway and walking towards his car. Amir can be seen reaching for his gun; circling behind the Prime Minister and extending his arm; followed by a flash and three bursts. The last image is of Rabin disappearing under a pile of security men to screams of horrified onlookers. After which the photographer stopped filming and hit the ground.
Indeed I remember like it was yesterday; how I, a seventeen years old kid, saw the peace rally On TV. And in the end also the report about Rabin’s death. Without a doubt, it is a moment that every Israeli would know where he was. Similar to the Kennedy assassination in the US.
