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People hate whatever they do not understand Ibn Ezra |
Yigal Amir (born May 23, 1970) is the Israeli assassin of Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin. The assassination took place on November 4, 1995 at the conclusion of a rally in Tel Aviv. Amir is currently serving a life sentence for murder plus six years for injuring Rabin's bodyguard, Yoram Rubin, under aggravating circumstances. He was later sentenced to an additional 8 years for conspiracy to murder.
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Yigal Amir was born to a Haredi Jewish family in Herzliya, Israel. His mother, Geula, was a kindergarten teacher, and his father, Shlomo, was a sofer. Yigal Amir attended a Haredi elementary school in Herzliya and a high school yeshiva in Tel Aviv. He 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 and computer science 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.
During his years as an activist, Amir became friendly with Avishai Raviv, to whom he revealed his plan to kill Rabin. While Raviv posed as a right-wing radical, he was working for the Shabak, the Israeli secret service.
While in prison, Amir became engaged to Larisa Trimbobler after they exchanged letters and spoke on the phone. In January 2004, the Israel Prison Service refused to allow Amir to marry in jail, and this was upheld in April 2004 by a ruling of the Tel Aviv District Court. However, in August 2004, they held a proxy marriage, giving Amir's father "power of attorney" to transfer a wedding ring to the 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 change. In February 2006, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ordered the Interior Ministry to register them as a married couple.
In late August 2005, Amir applied to the prison authorities for permission to conceive a child through in vitro fertilisation. In March 2006, Amir was caught handing his wife a plastic bag with semen. 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 are in violation of prison regulations, some of his privileges were canceled. Up until October 20, 2006 the Shabak security service had opposed unsupervised visits. Four days later, Amir was allowed a 10-hour-long conjugal visit with Larisa Amir. Five months later it was reported that Larisa was pregnant, and on October 28, 2007 she gave birth to a son: Yinon Eliya Shalom. The brit milah took place on November 4, 2007, the twelfth anniversary of Rabin's assassination, in Rimonim prison after Amir's appeal to the district court to be present at his son's circumcision was accepted.
On November 4, 1995, after a demonstration in Tel Aviv's "Kings of Israel Square" (now Rabin Square) in support of the Oslo Accords, Amir awaited Rabin in the parking lot adjacent the square, close to Rabin's official limousine. There he shot Rabin twice with a Beretta 84F .380 ACP caliber semi-automatic pistol and injured Yoram Rubin, a security guard, with a third shot. Amir was immediately seized by Rabin's bodyguards. Rabin was rushed to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center where he died on an operating table 40 minutes later of blood loss and a punctured lung. According to the court, Yigal Amir's brother, Hagai, and his friend Dror Adani, were his accomplices in the assassination plan.
Upon hearing that Yitzhak Rabin was dead, Amir told the police he was "satisfied." At his trial Amir said he didn't care if the outcome was death or paralysis as long as Rabin was "out of the way." He expressed no regret for his actions.
The assassination was preceded by three unsuccessful attempts that same year: at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, at the Nof Yerushalayim Hotel and a ceremony inaugurating a highway in Kfar Shmaryahu. These plans fell through moments before implementation.
The trial lasted from January 23 to March 27, 1996. Despite attempts to defend his actions on religious grounds, Amir was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment plus six additional years in prison for injuring Rubin. In the verdict, the three 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.
Amir was defended by two court-appointed attorneys, Gabi Shachar and Shmuel Flishman, in addition to Yonatan Ray Goldberg, who represented him earlier in the trial. The judges ordered a mental examination by three district psychiatrists and a clinical psychiatrist who all agreed that Amir understood the meaning of his actions and was fit to stand trial.
Amir's deeds were condemned by Bar-Ilan University. A professor of Talmud at the university, Daniel Sperber, said that this act "in no way represents the university or the policy of the university."
Amir's claim that he was acting in accordance with Jewish law was rejected: "The attempt to grant religious authority to the murder...is completely inappropriate and amounts to cynical exploitation of Jewish law for goals that are alien to Judaism.
Amir was later sentenced to an additional five years, and after an appeal on behalf of the State, eight years, for conspiring to commit the assassination with his brother Hagai Amir and Dror Adani. All of the sentences were cumulative. In Israel, a sentence of life imprisonment is usually reduced to a period of 20–30 years by the president, with the possibility of further reduction for good behavior. However, the president did not reduce the sentence, and president Moshe Katsav said that there is "no forgiveness, no absolution and no pardon" for Yigal Amir. Present Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu and former premier Ehud Olmert, too, have said that Yigal Amir will never be released from prison. On Wednesday, 19.12.2001 the Knesset by majority of 62 members approved the Yigal Amir Law, that a parole board will not be able to recommend pardon or shortening time in prison of a murderer of a prime minister.
In the discussion that ensued it was hoped the law would prevent the murder of another prime minister whereas another party said that the law differentiates between "blood and blood".
Amir was held in solitary confinement in Beersheba's Eshel 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. Since 2007, the Amir family and the "Committee for Democracy" campaigned to release Yigal and Hagai Amir. The campaign includes statements for the media, stickers, posters and short films. Amir was interviewed by the Israeli press in 2008. The release of the interview on television was controversial and subsequently was cancelled. Later in 2008 he went on a hunger strike. In February 2010, the Nazareth District Court permitted the Ynet internet news service to interview Amir.
In July 2010, after 15 years of solitary confinement, Amir appealed to the Petah Tikva District Court to be permitted to pray in group prayers in accordance to Jewish law. He claimed that the terms of his imprisonment were worse than any other prisoner in the history of the State of Israel, on the grounds that no other prisoner had been in solitary for this amount of time. He said that failure to allow him to pray in synagogue would be a violation of his right to freedom of worship. In August 2010, the court ruled that Amir would be allowed to meet another prisoner for prayer three times a week, and that he would be allowed to study Torah with another prisoner once every two weeks.
From time to time radical Israeli right-wing organizations carry out campaigns (via posters or videos) which call for the release of Yigal Amir and his brother Hagai. A campaign such as that was held in October 2007 in which the prominent Israeli singer Ariel Zilber also participated. In response to this campaign the Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter stated: "This man is in the closest status a person can be to a death sentence" and also added that "A reduction of his sentence is impossible and illogical, and it will surely accompany him until he would pass away".
Larissa Trimbobler was born in Russia. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy. She has published a novel in Russian (A Mirror for a Prince) and claims to be an Orthodox Jew. Larisa met Amir in Russia, where he was teaching Judaism. After her immigration to Israel, she visited Amir with her husband, Benjamin (with whom she has four children), for humanitarian reasons. Larisa expressed ideological support for Amir, and they began to correspond and speak on the phone. Larisa divorced her husband in 2003.Larisa announced that she was engaged to Amir and wanted to marry while Amir was in jail. In January 2004, after their request was filed, the Israel Prisons Authority declared it would not permit the marriage. In April 2004, the matter was brought before the Tel Aviv District Court. At the time, the Prisons Commissioner instructed his legal aides to defend the decision based on security considerations. But Amir's lawyers said this claim violated their client's basic rights and would not hold up in court. They noted that several Palestinians serving multiple life terms for crimes such as murder have been permitted to marry in prison. Legal analysts have said the Supreme Court would likely uphold any appeal by Amir's lawyer, unless specific legislation is enacted prohibiting him from marrying. August 2004 Trimbobler and Amir were wed in a surreptitious proxy marriage. Under Jewish law, a prospective husband can grant a form of "power of attorney" to a chosen representative, who can then transfer a wedding ring, or something of similar value, to the prospective wife. On July 2005 their marriage was validated by an Israeli Rabbinical Court. Larisa submitted a petition after the Interior Ministry refused to register Amir and Larisa as a married couple. Israel's Justice Ministry defined Amir's marriage as "problematic" because according to a past ruling, a marriage ceremony not conducted in the presence of a rabbi from the Chief Rabbinate is unrecognized.
On February 6, 2006, Haaretz reported that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had ordered the Interior Ministry to register Amir and Trimbobler as a married couple. They then filed requests with the Prison Authority and petitions to court to enable them to hold conjugal visits or conceive a child through artificial insemination.
In March 2006 the Israeli Prison Service approved Amir's petition for in vitro fertilization. The service was to study how this process would be conducted without Amir leaving the prison. A week later, Amir was caught handing a pre-prepared bag of semen to his wife and the visit was terminated. After the incident a disciplinary tribunal barred visits from his wife for 30 days and phone calls for 14 days. The IVF treatments were stopped after several members of the Knesset submitted a petition.
Up until October 20, 2006 the Shabak security service had opposed unsupervised visits. Four days later, Amir was allowed a 10-hour-long conjugal visit. Five months later it was reported that Larisa was pregnant. On October 28, 2007, she gave birth to a son.
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