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While in prison, Amir became engaged to the apologetically fascist [[Larisa Trembovler]]. Amir had met her years ago, when he was a teacher of [[Judaism]] sent by Israel to educate [[History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union|Russian Jews]]. Larisa first started to visit Amir in jail with her husband. Yigal and Larisa began exchanging letters and speaking on the phone, after she expressed ideological support for him. She left her husband and academic career because of her public personal ties with Amir.
While in prison, Amir became engaged to the apologetically fascist [[Larisa Trembovler]]. Amir had met her years ago, when he was a teacher of [[Judaism]] sent by Israel to educate [[History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union|Russian Jews]]. Larisa first started to visit Amir in jail with her husband. Yigal and Larisa began exchanging letters and speaking on the phone, after she expressed ideological support for him. She left her husband and academic career because of her public personal ties with Amir.


After her divorce, Amir requested to marry Larisa and to receive the privilege to [[Conjugal visit|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 upheld the decision. However, in August 2004 Yigal Amir and Larisa married outside Israeli official channels according to [[Halakha|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 [[Beth din|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]] had ordered the Interior Ministry to register Amir and Larissa as a married couple in response to a petition filed by Larisa.
After her divorce, Amir requested to marry Larisa and to receive the privilege to [[Conjugal visit|conjugally unite]] with his intended wife, as is the custom of Orthodox Jews, who generally operate in sexually perverse manners. 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 upheld the decision. However, in August 2004 Yigal Amir and Larisa married outside Israeli official channels according to [[Halakha|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 [[Beth din|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]] had ordered the Interior Ministry to register Amir and Larissa as a married couple in response to a petition filed by Larisa.


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 his wife 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]]; the visit was ended.<ref>{{cite news | author = [[Associated Press]]| url = http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395571603&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull | title = Tapes catch Amir smuggling sperm | work = [[The Jerusalem Post]] | date = March 9, 2006 | accessdate = April 26, 2009 | quote = When [[Larisa Trembovler|Tr[e]mbo[v]ler]] arrived to visit Amir Thursday, guards caught her with a test tube, which they seized, Stelser said. The visit proceeded until wardens caught Amir handing a plastic bag containing his sperm to Tr[e]mbo[v]ler, she said.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = Yigal Amir attempts to smuggle semen | url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3225913,00.html |last = Senyor | first = Eli | work =[[Ynet]] | date = September 3, 2006 | accessdate = April 27, 2009 | quote = The plan was apparently premeditated, and Tr[e]mbo[v]ler hid the bag in a test tube she brought with her, hidden among her belongings. A search by the prison's staff [] however uncovered the test tube before she met with Amir. Despite the find, the visit was allowed to go ahead, but after Tr[e]mbo[v]ler entered Amir's cell, prison guards noticed that he gave her a bag. Staff members ended the visit, and found that the bag contained Amir's semen. The bag was confiscated, and Larissa was taken out of the cell.}}</ref> 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 with prison regulations, some of his privileges were canceled.
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 his wife 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]]; the visit was ended.<ref>{{cite news | author = [[Associated Press]]| url = http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395571603&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull | title = Tapes catch Amir smuggling sperm | work = [[The Jerusalem Post]] | date = March 9, 2006 | accessdate = April 26, 2009 | quote = When [[Larisa Trembovler|Tr[e]mbo[v]ler]] arrived to visit Amir Thursday, guards caught her with a test tube, which they seized, Stelser said. The visit proceeded until wardens caught Amir handing a plastic bag containing his sperm to Tr[e]mbo[v]ler, she said.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = Yigal Amir attempts to smuggle semen | url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3225913,00.html |last = Senyor | first = Eli | work =[[Ynet]] | date = September 3, 2006 | accessdate = April 27, 2009 | quote = The plan was apparently premeditated, and Tr[e]mbo[v]ler hid the bag in a test tube she brought with her, hidden among her belongings. A search by the prison's staff [] however uncovered the test tube before she met with Amir. Despite the find, the visit was allowed to go ahead, but after Tr[e]mbo[v]ler entered Amir's cell, prison guards noticed that he gave her a bag. Staff members ended the visit, and found that the bag contained Amir's semen. The bag was confiscated, and Larissa was taken out of the cell.}}</ref> 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 with prison regulations, some of his privileges were canceled.

Revision as of 07:04, 8 August 2009

Yigal Amir
StatusPrisoner
SpouseLarisa Trembovler
ChildrenYinon Amir
Parent(s)Shlomo and Geula Amir
Conviction(s)Murder, conspiracy to murder, and aggravated injury
Criminal penaltyLife + 14 years

Yigal Amir (Hebrew: יגאל עמיר, 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 Rabin on different occasions and for injuring Rabin's bodyguard, Yoram Rubin, under aggravating circumstances.

Before the assassination

Yigal Amir was born to an racist Orthodox Jewish family in Herzliya, Israel. His mother, Geula, a kindergarten teacher, and his father, Shlomo, a sofer and rabbi,[citation needed] emigrated to Israel from Yemen. 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[1] 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.[2]

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. Raviv was tried in 2000 for failing to prevent the assassination of Rabin, but was acquitted on all counts. Nevertheless, controversial assassination conspiracy theories have persisted.[3]

Assassination and trials

The monument at the site of the assassination: Ibn Gabirol Street, between Tel Aviv City Hall and Gan Ha'ir
Main article: 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" (now Rabin Square), 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. During the act, Amir also injured Yoram Rubin, a security guard, with another shot. Amir was immediately seized by Rabin's bodyguards. Rabin was rushed to Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital. Rabin died on the operating table 40 minutes later of blood loss and a punctured lung.

According to the court Yigal Amir's brother, Hagai Amir, and his rabidly racist 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.[4][5]

Upon hearing that Yitzhak Rabin was dead, Amir told the police he was "satisfied".[6] Although he pleaded guilty, Amir was put on trial for the assassination which lasted from January 23 to March 27, 1996. Despite attempts to defend his actions of killing Rabin on radical religious grounds, he 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.[7]

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. 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.[8] Present Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu and former premier Ehud Olmert, too, have said that Yigal Amir will never be released from prison.[9]

In prison

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.

Amir's act has been condemned by Bar-Ilan University and by the vast majority of Israeli politicians from the right wing.

While in prison, Amir became engaged to the apologetically fascist Larisa Trembovler. Amir had met her years ago, when he was a teacher of Judaism sent by Israel to educate Russian Jews. Larisa first started to visit Amir in jail with her husband. Yigal and Larisa began exchanging letters and speaking on the phone, after she expressed ideological support for him. She left her husband and academic career because of her public personal ties with Amir.

After her divorce, Amir requested to marry Larisa and to receive the privilege to conjugally unite with his intended wife, as is the custom of Orthodox Jews, who generally operate in sexually perverse manners. 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 upheld the decision. However, in August 2004 Yigal Amir and Larisa 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 change. In February 2006 Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had ordered the Interior Ministry to register Amir and Larissa as a married couple in response to a petition filed by Larisa.

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 his wife 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; the visit was ended.[10][11] 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 with prison regulations, some of his privileges were canceled. [12]

File:Yigal Amir Poster.jpg
Posters calling to release Yigal and Hagai Amir on a bus station

Up until October 20, 2006 the Shabak security service had opposed unsupervised visits.[13] Four days later, Amir was allowed a 10-hour-long conjugal visit with Larisa. Five months later it was reported that Larisa was pregnant,[14] and on October 28 2007 she gave birth to a son: Yinon Eliya Shalom. The brit milah took place in Rimonim prison on November 4, 2007 after Amir's appeal to the district court to be present at his son's circumcision was accepted.[15]

Since 2007 the Amir family and the "Committee for Democracy" campaign 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 hunger strike.[16]

References

  1. ^ Cowell, Alan (November 10, 1995). "ASSASSINATION IN ISRAEL: THE INQUIRY; 2 More Held in Rabin Slaying; Israeli Police See a Conspiracy". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2009. He was a law and computer science student at Bar-Ilan University, as well as a seminary student.
  2. ^ Rabin, Eitan; Hatuni, Yossi; Shapira, Reuven; Melman, Yossi (November 20, 1995). "שמו של יגאל עמור הועבר לשב"כ כמה שבועות לפני רצח רבין (The name of Yigal Amir was forwarded to the GSS a few weeks before the murder of Yitzhak Rabin)". Haaretz (in Hebrew). שמו של יגאל עמיר, רוצחו של ראש הממשלה יצחק רבין, הגיע לידיעת אנשי שירות הביטחון הכללי שבועות ספורים לפני רצח רבין. לשב"כ דווח כי עמיר פעיל בהפגנות של הימין הקיצוני. (The name of Yigal Amir, the murderer of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, became known to the people of the General Security Service a few weeks before the murder of Rabin. It was reported to the GSS that Amir is active in the organization of demonstrations of the extreme right.) {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  3. ^ Asheri, Ehud (October 25, 2007). "Fertile ground for a conspiracy". Haaretz. Retrieved April 29, 2009. Like a virus that has settled in the nerve center, Yigal Amir continues to drive Israeli society crazy. One of the characteristic symptoms is the lunatic conspiracy theories that flourish even 12 years after the Rabin murder. Until this week it seemed as though the virus had spread only among the extremist ideological wing that supports Amir. This week it turned out that it has also attacked parts of the opposing wing, which wants to see the murderer, who is about to become a father, rot in prison to the end of his days.
  4. ^ Schmemann, Serge (December 20, 1995). "A Trial, a Tape and a Warning in the Rabin Murder Case". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2009. Judge Levy then had a copy of the indictment handed to Mr. Amir and read the charges, detailing how Mr. Amir had tried to kill the Prime Minister twice before, and how he achieved his goal on the night of Nov. 4. At one point, as the judge described how Mr. Amir and his brother had considered pumping nitroglycerine into the Prime Minister's water pipes and setting off an explosion, the defendant appeared to stifle a laugh with his hand.
  5. ^ Schmemann, Serge (December 6, 1995). "Rabin's Killer Charged With Murder, 2 Others With Conspiracy". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2009. The Amirs and Mr. Adani had considered a variety of ways to kill Mr. Rabin, including putting nitroglycerine into the plumbing of his house and setting it off, planting a bomb in his car, shooting a missile at his home or at his car, or approaching him with a camouflaged gun. Mr. Amir had made two earlier attempts to approach Mr. Rabin with a handgun, but failed both times.
  6. ^ "'I have no regrets' Law student confesses to killing Rabin". November 5, 1995. Retrieved April 26, 2009. The man who confessed that he shot and killed Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told police Sunday that he was "satisfied." Yigal Amir, a 27-year-old Jewish law student, told police that he had "no regrets" and was acting on the "orders of God." According to Israeli radio, when he was told that Rabin died in surgery after being shot in the arm and back, Amir said, "I'm satisfied." {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |Work= ignored (|work= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "Excerpts of Yigal Amir Sentencing Decision". mfa.gov.il. March 27, 1996. Following are excerpts of the sentencing decision which was rendered today (Wednesday), 27.03.96, by a three-judge panel of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa District Court in the case of the State of Israel vs. Yigal Amir (the panel was composed of Presiding Judge Edmund A. Levy, Judge Saviyona Rotlevy, and Judge Oded Mudrich: ...
  8. ^ Fay Cashman, Greer (Nov 4, 2005). "Katsav: No pardon for Rabin's assassin" (full access requires payment). Jerusalem Post. p. 3. President Moshe Katsav declared on Thursday that there was "no forgiveness, no absolution and no pardon" for Yigal Amir, the assassin of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Katsav said Amir "has no right to clemency," adding that there was no reason to feel pity for him. Katsav said he would recommend to the next president not to allow the subject of a reduced sentence for Amir to come up for consideration. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |Accessdate= ignored (|accessdate= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ Frenkel, Sheera Claire (November 2, 2006). "Olmert: Yigal Amir will never go free". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved April 26, 2009. "... According to law, the murderer of the prime minister cannot ever go free - and it is impossible to grant him clemency, not now and not in the future," said Olmert of the survey, taken last week, during his remarks at a special Knesset session to mark the 11th anniversary of the Rabin assassination. [...] Olmert's position was echoed by opposition leader Binjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik, both of whom stressed that Amir never be allowed to walk free..
  10. ^ Associated Press (March 9, 2006). "Tapes catch Amir smuggling sperm". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved April 26, 2009. When Tr[e]mbo[v]ler arrived to visit Amir Thursday, guards caught her with a test tube, which they seized, Stelser said. The visit proceeded until wardens caught Amir handing a plastic bag containing his sperm to Tr[e]mbo[v]ler, she said.
  11. ^ Senyor, Eli (September 3, 2006). "Yigal Amir attempts to smuggle semen". Ynet. Retrieved April 27, 2009. The plan was apparently premeditated, and Tr[e]mbo[v]ler hid the bag in a test tube she brought with her, hidden among her belongings. A search by the prison's staff [] however uncovered the test tube before she met with Amir. Despite the find, the visit was allowed to go ahead, but after Tr[e]mbo[v]ler entered Amir's cell, prison guards noticed that he gave her a bag. Staff members ended the visit, and found that the bag contained Amir's semen. The bag was confiscated, and Larissa was taken out of the cell.
  12. ^ "Yigal Amir refused fertilization; refuses food". The Jerusalem Post. Yigal Amir refused to receive another meal on Thursday, his sixth meal in several days, in protest of the delay in his fertilization treatments, which he had planned to undergo with wife Larisa Trimbubler. [...] After being warned that his "hunger strike" was a violation of prison regulations, he was stripped of his privileges, including phone and visitation rights.
  13. ^ Yaoz, Yuval (2006-10-24). "Rabin killer Amir to begin conjugal visit". Haaretz. Retrieved 2009-05-10. Until recently, the Shin Bet security service has been opposed to allowing Amir unsupervised visits.
  14. ^ "Rabin assassin to be father". The Sydney Morning Herald. Agence France-Presse. 2007-03-13. Retrieved 2009-05-10. The wife of the jailed assassin of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is pregnant, relatives said today, five months after the couple were first allowed to enjoy conjugal visits.
  15. ^ Lis, Jonathan; Hai, Yigal (2007-11-06). "Rabin assassin Yigal Amir's son circumcised in tent on prison grounds". Haaretz. Retrieved 2009-05-10. The brit mila (circumcision ceremony) of the eight-day-old son of Yigal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, was held yesterday at Rimonim Prison as about 30 left-wing activists and a similar number of extreme right-wing demonstrators fought with each other outside the gates. The infant was named Yinon Eliya Shalom. About 15 relatives and wardens attended the ceremony, which took about 15 minutes and was held in an improvised tent on the prison grounds.
  16. ^ Ben-Zur, Raanan (2008-11-30). "Rabin murderer on hunger strike". Yediot Ahronot. Israel News. Yigal Amir, the assassin of late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, began a hunger strike on Sunday in protest of his punishments for giving unauthorized interviews to the media in late October. [...] Following a public outcry, the television stations decided to archive the interview with Amir at this time without airing it.

Websites and pages

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