Israel – The unrepentant brother of the man who killed Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was released from prison Friday after serving 16½ years for complicity in a murder that stunned Israel and according to some destroyed an opportunity for peace.
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Hagai Amir, 43, is not known to have expressed remorse for his role in the death and upon his release he told Israel Radio, “I am proud of what I did.”
Amir helped plan the 1995 killing. His brother Yigal Amir, an ultra-nationalist Jewish extremist, is serving a life sentence for gunning down the prime minister after a Tel Aviv peace rally.
Channel 2 TV showed several dozen peace activists outside the prison ahead of Amir’s release holding signs reading, “We won’t forgive, we won’t forget.” As Amir exited the prison and was whisked away in a white van, they chanted “disgrace.”
Amir was greeted by his mother and was expected to be taken to a relative’s house in a Jewish West Bank settlement for his first night of freedom.
“Sixteen and a half years have passed and it is painful and insulting as if it were yesterday and I want to scream but what more is left to say?” Noa Rothman, Rabin’s granddaughter, wrote on her Facebook page.
Amir was originally sentenced to 16 years, but that time was extended by six months after he was convicted of threatening the life of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2006. He spent most of his prison years in isolation.
The Amir brothers opposed Rabin’s policy of trading land to the Palestinians for peace.
Rabin’s killing shocked not only Israelis but also the world, which had pinned its hopes on the former general’s bold peace agenda. Some argue that his murder radically changed the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.
Rabin was a war hero who Israelis trusted to negotiate peace, even if that meant conceding lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. During his tenure, he signed the Oslo accords and a peace treaty with Jordan.
Since his death, the peace process has mostly sputtered and the years since have been marred by waves of attacks by Palestinian militants and wars in Lebanon and with the militant Hamas movement in Gaza.
“Yigal Amir fired three shots to Rabin’s back but he also fired three shots to the heart of … the state of Israel. It’s fair to say today that since the murder of Yitzhak Rabin, we are not the same country,” former lawmaker Danny Yatom, a confidant of Rabin, told Israel radio.
And most of us would be “proud” if he and his dreche brother were to end up under a bus for what they have done to EY. May they suffer at least as much as the family of Rabin, Z’tl, and hopefully soon recieve their real sentence in their version of “olam haboh”. Its unfortunate that EY did not have capital punishment for such murderers.
Being proud of killing a Jew? I was no fan of Rabin, but still…..
He got more time than Arab terrorists who blow up innocent civilians & enjoy it. Something wrong there, although I do not condone what he did.
It seems to me that this man is a danger and needs to stay locked in.
Rabin was pretty much despised before his murder; his popularity sunk to an all time low. After his murder, the population changed their minds about Rabin and as we read the parsha last week, Achari Mais: Kodoshim.
Rabin deserved to go. Were all lucky he went before he took all of us down with him with his political plans that would cost many Jewish lives.
To #1 -Mr. Anonymous- It really irks me when I read about postings, which state that EY should have capital punishment. Such authors of those postings can’t seem to accept the fact that in 64 years, EY has never used capital punishment, with the exception of convicted nazi war criminals; and, capital punishment was only carried out once, in 1962, against Eichmann. The same postings are against capital punishment in the USA. Go figure!
Dont forget the Altalena ship that was bringing in weapons to protect the new State Of Israel in 1948, a relative of mine was shot and killed in cold blood by Rabin and his thugs. I have nothing but respect for the Amir brothers, they saved Eretz Yisrael from this Rasha.
he is no different than any hammas member
I am in no way a fan of Rabin. But to be proud of killing a Jew? That is a busha and chlima. Horrendous.
At the same time, he served his punishment and according to the law he deserves to be free.
Good people all around the world should condemn his actions and his words…..but not his freedom.
hopefully this zevel of a person & his brother will suffer for the rest of their miserable lives.
They are not “ultra-nationalists” they are murdering traitors who murdered our elected Prime Minister.
It is amazing that the article says that the peace process was stymied after the death of Rabin, the Israeli government has offered much more that Rabin ever tjought of giving Perez, Olmert and Barak are willing to even dvide Yerushalayim which I think (hoped) that Rabin never would have gone that far.
Time will tell who was right and who was wrong. All men are created equal and certainly Rabin and Peres are responsible for far more deaths than the Amir brothers. Number 1 and whoever wrote this article show serious memory lapses when they neglect to mention the weekly bus bombings. They ended along with Rabin.
Wow I didn’t see such shock when the Israeli GOV releases murderous Arab terrorist on an almost daily base’s most of the time in exchange for nothing.
Mr Amir served more then what he was originally sentenced and was released let
him in a small way make up for the 16+ years of his life that where wasted b/c of at most flimsy evidence.
some really disturbing comments. The idea that Oslo caused Jews to be killed is ridiculous. There was going to be terrorism regardless. After all prior to the 1st intifada there was no peace process.
I was learning in EY when Rabin was assassinated.
1) At that time, a lot of people despised Rabin.
2) A lot of people were happy he was killed. The backroom dealings he had with Arafat was going to give everything to the Arabs.
3) Israel at that time had numerous bus bombing and other terrorist attacks.
While killing a jew or any person is despicable, I what Rabin did was despicable. His death probably indirectly saved countless of Jewish lives.
(I come to this site to learn about issues that impact Israel and the Jews. This discussion has been very educational.)