YIGAL AMIR

'Yigal Amir' (, born May 23, 1970) is the Israeli assassin of Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin. The assassination took place November 4, 1995 at the conclusion of a rally in Tel Aviv. Amir is currently serving a life sentence for murder plus 14 years for conspiracy to murder Yitzhak Rabin on different occasions and for injuring Rabin's bodyguard, Yoram Rubin.

Contents

Biography

The assassination and aftermath

Response to Assassination

Marriage

References

Legal documents

News reports

References and footnotes

External links

Biography

Yigal Amir was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Herzliya, Israel. His mother, Geula, a kindergarten teacher, and his father, Shlomo, a rabbi, immigrated to Israel from Yemen. He attended a Haredi elementary school and a high school yeshiva, and then joined the Israel Defense Forces as a Hesder student, combining army training in the Golani Brigade with religious study at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh.
Amir was a law student at Bar-Ilan University and a right-wing radical who had strenuously opposed Rabin's signing of the Oslo Accords. During his studies at Bar-Ilan University, he was active in organizing protest rallies. ^[1] During his years as an activist, Amir became friendly with Avishai Raviv. While Raviv posed as a right-wing extremist, he was working for the Shabak, the Israeli secret service. The truth came out when Raviv was brought to trial in 2000 for failing to prevent the assassination of Rabin. Raviv was acquitted on all counts. Nevertheless controversial assassination conspiracy theories have prevailed.

The assassination and aftermath

Main articles: Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin

On November 4, 1995, after a demonstration held in support of the Oslo Accords, held in Tel Aviv's "Kings of Israel Square" (''Kikar Malkhey Yisrael'' כיכר מלכי ישראל, now "Rabin Square" - ''Kikar Rabin'' כיכר רבין), Amir awaited Rabin in the parking lot adjacent the square, close to Rabin's official limousine, where he shot Rabin twice with a Beretta 84F semi-automatic pistol in .380 ACP caliber (serial number D98231Y). During the act, Amir also injured Yoram Rubin, a security guard, with another shot.
Yigal Amir's brother, Hagai Amir, and his friend Dror Adani, were his accomplices in the assassination plan. Amir had attempted to assassinate Rabin twice throughout 1995, but those plans fell through moments before implementation. ^[2]
Amir was caught at the scene. Upon hearing that Yitzhak Rabin was dead, Amir told the police he was "satisfied". ^[3]
Amir was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 6 additional years in prison for injuring Rubin. In the verdict, the judges wrote:

Every murder is an abominable act, but the act before us is more abominable sevenfold, because not only has the accused not expressed regret or sorrow, but he also seeks to show that he is at peace with himself over the act that he perpetrated. He who so calmly cuts short another's life, only proves the depth of wretchedness to which [his] values have fallen, and thus he does not merit any regard whatsoever, except pity, because he has lost his humanity. ^[4]

In a later trial, Amir was sentenced to an additional 5 years (and after an appeal on behalf of the State, 8 years) for conspiring to commit the assassination with his brother Hagai Amir and Dror Adani. All of the sentences were cumulative.
Amir was held in isolation in Be'er Sheva Prison, and moved to Ayalon Prison in 2003. His appeals of both sentences were rejected. Subsequently, a law was passed by the Knesset barring the pardon by the President of Israel for any assassin of a prime minister. Amir has never expressed regret for his actions.

Response to Assassination

Yigal Amir's act was a great source of embarrassment to the religious Jewish community and Bar Ilan University, leading to a wave of soul-searching. "I am ashamed that the person who did it was a Jew, and three times more ashamed that it was a Jew who called himself religious," said Shlomo Eckstein, president of the university. "And I am also ashamed that he was a student at Bar-Ilan." ^[5]

Marriage

While in prison, Amir became engaged to Larisa Trembovler. Amir had met her years ago, when she was a teacher of Judaism sent by Israel to educate Russian Jews. Trembovler first started to visit Amir in jail with her husband. Amir and Trembovler began exchanging letters and speaking on the phone, after she expressed ideological support for him. She abandoned her husband and academic career because of her public personal ties with Amir.
After her divorce, Amir requested to marry Larisa Trembovler and to receive the privilege to conjugally unite with his intended wife. In January 2004, the Israel Prison Service announced that it would prohibit Amir from marrying in jail and in April 2004, the Tel Aviv District Court reviewed the decision. However, in August 2004 Amir and Trembovler married outside Israeli official channels according to Jewish law, by giving his father "power of attorney" to transfer a wedding ring to his bride. In July 2005 their marriage was validated by a Rabbinical court, but not by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior. The prison administration issued a statement saying that its policy on "conjugal visits" would not be changed. In February 2006 Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had ordered the Interior Ministry to register Amir and Larissa Trembovler as a married couple in response to a petition filed by Trembovler.
In late August 2005 Amir applied to the prison authorities to allow him and his new wife to conceive a child through in vitro fertilisation. In March 2006 the Israeli Prison Service allowed Amir by his petition to have a child with Trembovler through artificial insemination. The Service was to study how this process would be conducted without Amir leaving the prison. A week later it reported that Amir was caught when he tried to give his wife a previously prepared plastic bag with semen. ^[6] The visit was ended. ^{[7] [8]}. After the incident a disciplinary tribunal denied him visits for 30 days and phone calls for 14 days. He was fined NIS 100 (then US $21). When the treatments were withheld due to a petition by several members of Knesset, Yigal Amir refused to eat. After being warned that hunger strikes were a violation of prison regulations, he was stripped of his privileges, including phone and visitation rights.
^[9]
Up until October 20, 2006 the Shabak security service had opposed unsupervised visits. ^[10] Four days later, Amir was allowed a 10-hour-long conjugal visit with Larisa. Five months later it was reported that Trembovler was pregnant. ^[11]

References

Legal documents

★ Excerpts of the State of Israel vs. Yigal Amir, March 27, 1996

★ Yigal Amir, Hagai Amir and Dror Adani vs. the State of Israel at the Supreme Court, August 29, 1999

★ Yigal Amir vs. the Prison Authority at the Supreme Court of Justice, August 8, 1999

★ Yigal Amir vs. the Prison Authority at the Supreme Court of Justice, November 8, 2004

News reports

★ "'I have no regrets' Law student confesses to killing Rabin, November 5, 1995 by CNN (before uncovering Avishai Raviv)

★ "Rabin's assassin, two others convicted of conspiracy", September 11, 1996 by CNN

★ "Slain Leader's Legacy Lives On, Assassin Admits", May 14, 1999 in the Washington Post

★ "Assassin regrets he didn't kill Rabin earlier", November 10, 2000 in the Jewish News Weekly (from the Jerusalem Post)

★ "Rabin Assassin Seeks Early Release", October 30, 2005 in CBS News

★ "Yigal Amir caught sneaking sperm", Jerusalem Post, March 9, 2006

★ "Rabin assassin to be father", Sydney Morning Herald, March 13, 2007

References and footnotes

1. I wrote the story': Who IS this guy? (Bob Baker's Newsthinking)
2. Israeli President Vows Never Pardon Assassin(CRIENGLISH)
3. 'I have no regrets' Law student confesses to killing Rabin(CNN)
4. Excerpts of Yigal Amir Sentencing Decision (mfa.gov.il)
5. http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:fLwAnKvj7y4J:chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/art-42.dir/issue-12.dir/12a03901.htm+yigal+amir+shlomo+eckstein&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3
6. Tapes catch Amir smuggling sperm(The Jerusalem Post)
7. Tapes catch Amir smuggling sperm (The Jerusalem Post)
8. Jailed Rabin killer tries to smuggle sperm (Middle East Times)
9. Yigal Amir refused fertilization; refuses food(The Jerusalem Post)
10. Rabin killer Amir to begin conjugal vist (Haaretz)
11. Rabin assassin to be father (The Sydney Morning Herald)

External links

★ Amir family official website

★ Yigal Amir: assassination report