Yitzhak Rabin assassination conspiracy theories

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Yitzhak Rabin assassination conspiracy theories arose almost immediately following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, on November 4, 1995. The gunman Yigal Amir, a Jewish Israeli student, was apprehended within seconds by other people in the crowd. Yitzhak Rabin died later on the operating table of Ichilov Hospital. Yigal Amir confessed to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

The matter was clear cut, has been reported as such in the media, and the Shamgar national inquiry commission and the court all drew the same conclusion that Yigal Amir was guilty of murder. Yet, some inconsistencies in the evidence have been alleged, both in the medical records and in the inquiry testimony. These allegations and other suspicions have been included in occasional left-wing conspiracy theories and more prevalent right-wing conspiracy theories.

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[edit] Right-wing conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theorists Uri Barkan, Barry Chamish, Natan Geffen and David Morrison wrote books alleging that Amir's action was on the surface intended to have been a staged, unsuccessful assassination bid to rekindle Rabin's flagging popularity, and was subverted by other factions (variously ascribed to political opponents, or the Israeli Secret Services Shin Bet or Shabak) who added the fatal wounds later. These theories make some or all of the following claims, most of them claimed to be incorrect, others little relevant [1] [2]:

  • Police reports state that gunpowder was found on Rabin's body and clothing, suggesting that he had been shot at point-blank range, as gunpowder travels only a few inches before dispersing. According to the official version, Amir shot from a distance at which no powder traces could have settled on Rabin's body and clothing. [3][4]
  • Surgery reports describing a bullet wound with the bullet entrance in the chest [5] are inconsistent with the eyewitness reports and the Kempler video, which suggest that Rabin was shot in the back while walking away from Yigal Amir.
  • Rabin would have walked after Amir's shots in a manner inconsistent with gunshot, an impossibility if they shattered the vertebrae. [6][7]
  • Each medical record describes wounds which are "completely different" in nature to those concluded by the official Shamgar Commission. Medical descriptions of Rabin's condition are described as suddenly appearing to change. [8]
  • Dr Guttman, a physician, opined that "[t]he first two wounds, to the chest and abdomen occurred before Rabin's arrival. The third, frontal chest wound, had to have been inflicted after he entered the hospital," and that "it is inconceivable that Rabin had no spinal damage. The six members of the operating team were too skilled to have all been wrong about that." [9]
  • Three police officers who had been present testified that "when Yitzhak Rabin was placed in the car, he showed no visible wounds." [10][11] Gordon Thomas in his book "Gideon's Spies" adds: "The surgeons insisted there was no possible gunshot wound that would have allowed Rabin to leave the attack site showing no evidence of a wound and arrive at the hospital with multiple damage ... subsequently the doctors have refused to discuss the matter." [12]
  • Rabin's motorcade took 22 minutes to arrive at the hospital, even though he had a highly experienced chauffeur, and the streets were cordoned-off. [13] The distance between the crime scene and the hospital is a five minute walk. [14]
  • Police ballistics tests on shell casings found at the scene did not match Amir's gun. [15][16]
  • No gunpowder residue was found on Amir's hands, clothing, or hair. Gunpowder residue would inevitably have been present if Amir had shot genuine bullets, as opposed to blanks. [17][18]
  • No blood was seen coming from Rabin at the scene, despite wounds to his lung and spleen, nor was any found later at that location. [19][20]By contrast witnesses describe blood "gushing" from a chest wound upon arriving at hospital.[21]
  • Some witnesses stated that someone shouted, "It's nothing ... they're blanks. It's a toy gun." [22][23][24]
  • A Shin Bet (secret service) agent testified that "I heard a policeman shout to people to calm down. The shot is a blank." [25][26]
  • Policeman Moshe Ephron stated: "The shots didn't sound natural. If they were real shots, they should have sounded much louder." [27][28]
  • Lea Rabin stated that a security guard told her immediately after the incident that the bullets shot at her husband were "blanks". She further stated that she was told by an Israeli security chief that she "should not worry as the whole thing had been staged." [29]
  • Rabin's wife said that she was kept from seeing her husband for a full hour. [30]
  • Amir, who was employed by the Shin Bet in Latvia about two years before the murder [31], commented at a court hearing, "If I were to tell the whole truth, the entire system would collapse. I know enough to destroy this country." [32][33][34]

[edit] Leftist conspiracy theory

According to a leftist conspiracy theory, extreme right-wing factors in the Shabak activated Yigal Amir and joined him in a subversive conspiracy to murder Yitzhak Rabin. This theory tries to explain how Yigal Amir easily penetrated the security perimeter around Rabin. Historian Michael Harsegor, a professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University, has supported this theory.

[edit] Criticisms of the conspiracy theories

There are three types of criticisms of the conspiracy theories. The most common type refutes and relativizes claims made in the conspiracy theories or by the conpiracy theorists [35] [36] and points out that the theories are detached from Israeli political culture, social relations and historic events. This criticism is not necessarily politically "colored" and may refer to both the right wing and left wing conspiracy theories. The other criticism focuses entirely on the more common, right wing theories.

A second, mostly Israeli left-wing criticism, attacks the very existence of such theories as a denial of what they consider to be right wing "responsibility" for the murder. This "responsibility" for the murder would have been by creating an extreme hostile environment to the late Prime Minister, in which Yigal Amir and his immediate accomplices Hagai Amir and Dror Adani were just a small group of the actors.

A third type of criticism, by right-wing activists, claims that the mostly Israeli right-wing conspiracy supporters embarrass the Israeli right by supporting fringe theories for which no proof exists. The conspiracy theorists, according to this criticism, move the debate away from the responsibility of what they call the "perpetrators of the Oslo crimes". These right-wing critics conclude that the right-wing conspiracy theorists serve the goals of the Israeli left. [37]

[edit] See also

[edit] Books

[edit] External links

[edit] Articles in press and magazines

[edit] Articles on alternative news sites

[edit] Miscellaneous

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