Main points of investigation

          The Warnings

Few month before the assassination, a student who was politically active with Yigal Amir in the university campus decided to contact the police because the Amir was talking seriously about killing PM Rabin. The student's boyfriend reported an alleged conversation overheard and gave a full description of, and named, Amir. The police called the student for another interrogation but no actions were further taken. 

         The Assassin

Yigal Amir, 26, was a right wing activist who studied at a yeshiva and at Bar Ilan university. He served in the elite  "Golani" unit in the army as a soldier. After a short stint (which the government tried to deny) in the Soviet Union as part of the Nativ office, Amir was rejected for service in the Shabak but was allowed to posses a gun with the required license. On the night Amir was allowed by security forces to roam freely within the secure, sterile area, for over half an hour.

         The Shots
 

All witnesses, bodyguards, policemen, Leah Rabin and onlookers testified that one (or more) of the people at the murder scene shouted loudly at the time of the shooting that the bullets are blanks . They all heard the words: It's blanks", "It's a toy pistol", It's not for real". The murderer testified that he heard one of the security men shouting that. Leah Rabin was later told so by GSS agents. Initially, the Israeli Press did not mention this fact in its reports. The Shamgar Commission could not identify who was the caller.

         The Video

Over a month after the murder a man came out with a video he had shot at the night of the murder. In the film Amir is shown firing a gun. The photographer stood on a galery across the narrow street and filmed the area of the VIP exit for more than half an hour, focusing for a long time on the Amir. The film was shot without interruption from a spot the secret services were supposed to clear - a sterile area. The photographer was not a professional and got the camera especially for that evening. The camera didn't focus on the VIPs but kept the murderer in the frame almost the whole time. The man (Kempler) couldn't quite explain why he waited for so long before he offered his evidence to the Shamgar Commission. It was later proven that he had lied and that the video was in the hands of security forces within days of the murder. The version that was eventually aired on TV proved to have been heavily tampered with and edited.

 
 

      

The alleged killer's best friend and accomplice at the planning of the murder was a secret agent planted amidst the extreme right wing activists in Israel. His mane was Avishai Raviv and his operational code name was Champagne. He was widely known in the circles of the right wing extremists but the government kept him as a secret asset until he was exposed by the Press. All his illegal activities were squashed by the police and he was never indicted for criminal activities he had conducted and carried out. Raviv was a close friend of the murderer and he took part in planning the assassination.

 

       

After P.M. Rabin was shot he was rushed into his car and driven away. A quarter of an hour later he arrived at the hospital, located only seven minutes walk, or a minute drive, away from the square. Where did the driver go before going to the hospital?  The Prime Minister's wife, Leah Rabin, wasn't driven straight to Ichilov hospital to be with her husband in his last moments. Instead she was driven in a hurry to the Shabak headquarters, held there for over half an hour and told it was all an exercise . Why?

 

        The Weapon

In his testimony, the alleged assassin was initially cooperative and all the details he gave to the police were found correct down to the last. One thing though was odd. The murderer said that he loaded his gun with only 10 bullets. After three shots, seven rounds should have remained in the gun. The ballistic lab that examined the gun found nine bullets in the magazine which means that it must have been loaded with a dozen bullets. Why would the murderer lie to the police abut that?  The bullet that wounded Yoram Rubin, the Prime Minister's bodyguard, was never found although altogether three shells were found at the scene, as many as Amir allegedly had fired. Where is the bullet that hit Rubin? And who does the third bullet found on the scene belong to?

 

       

The Commission of Inquiry was set up within days of the murder. It was headed by the former Chief Justice of the Israel Supreme Court, Meir Shamgar. The former judge had previously chaired the Commission of Inquiry into the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, and found Dr. Baruch Goldstein as the sole perpetrator of that crime. It has since been proved that Dr. Goldstein could not have carried out the massacre alone - and probably didn't carry it at all. Shamgar was aided in his inquiry into the Rabin murder by a former Mossad chief, Zvi Zamir, a man well versed in covert operations and by the ailing Dean of the Tel Aviv University Law Faculty, Prof. Ariel Rozen-Zvi. The latter died shortly after the commission had concluded its work. On his dying bed the professor had confessed to a close friend that he seals in his heart many secrets regarding Rabin's murder and that he is bound to take them all with him to his grave. He did.

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