Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin

1995 murder in Tel Aviv, Israel

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin happened on 4 November 1995 at 21:30. It happened at the end of a rally in support of the Oslo Accords at the Kings of Israel Square in Tel Aviv.

Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Site of the rally before the assassination: Kings of Israel Square (since renamed Rabin Square) with Tel Aviv's City Hall in the background during the day.
LocationTel Aviv, Israel
Coordinates32°04′54.8″N 34°46′51.4″E / 32.081889°N 34.780944°E / 32.081889; 34.780944
DateNovember 4, 1995
TargetYitzhak Rabin
Attack type
Shooting
WeaponsBeretta 84F semi-automatic pistol
DeathsYitzhak Rabin
Injured
Yoram Rubin
PerpetratorYigal Amir

The assassin, an Israeli nationalist named Yigal Amir, was against the accords and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's peace plans.

Assassination

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After the rally, Rabin walked down the Tel Aviv City Hall steps towards his car. As he entered the car, Amir approached the car from the rear and fired two shots at Rabin with a semi-automatic pistol. Rabin was hit in the abdomen and chest. Amir was immediately tackled by Rabin's bodyguards and police on the scene, and fired a third shot at bodyguard Yoram Rubin during the struggle, lightly wounding him.

Amir was arrested on the scene with the murder weapon. He was taken to a police station a few blocks away.[1][2][3][4]

Yoram Rubin tried to get Rabin in the car but Rabin's body was "limp and heavy".[5] Another of Rabin's bodyguards, Shai Glaser, helped put Rabin in the backseat of the car. He was taken to Ichilov Hospital at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, a short drive away.

Rabin, who was bleeding a lot, was conscious and said that he thought he'd been hurt but not too badly before passing out. Some ten minutes after the shooting, the car arrived at Ichilov Hospital.[6]

At this time, Rabin was not breathing and had no pulse. After the air was drained from Rabin's chest, his pulse came back. He then had surgery. However his health got worse and his heart stopped. At 23:02, one hour and thirty-two minutes after the shooting, doctors gave up their tries to revive Rabin and pronounced him dead.[7]

Rabin's funeral

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The funeral of Rabin took place on November 6,[8] two days after the assassination, at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem, where Rabin was later buried.

Hundreds of world leaders, including about 80 heads of state, attended the funeral.[9] President of the United States Bill Clinton,[10] King Hussein of Jordan,[11] Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands,[12] Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin,[13] Spanish Prime Minister and European Council President-in-Office Felipe González,[14] Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien, acting Israeli Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres,[15] United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali,[16] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,[17] President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso, and President of Israel Ezer Weizman[18] were some of the world leaders who went.

Amir's trial

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Yigal Amir was tried for Rabin's murder.[19] Yigal Amir was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for Rabin's murder and an additional six years for injuring Yoram Rubin.[20] Amir's sentence was not reduced by the President of Israel, which is often see as traditional.[21]

References

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  1. Barak T: Ten years have passed, friend Archived 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine. Tel Aviv Newspaper (in Hebrew)
  2. Perry D: Israel and the Quest for Permanence, p. 216.
  3. "570: The Night In Question". This American Life. December 14, 2017.
  4. Ephron, Dan (October 31, 2015a). "'I did it! Now bring me schnapps!' How Rabin's assassin greeted news that Israel's champion of peace was dead". the Guardian.
  5. Ephron, Dan (2015). Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel. New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-393-24210-2.
  6. Ephron 2015, p. 176
  7. Ephron 2015, p. 178
  8. "CNN – 'Soldier for peace' Rabin buried – Nov. 6, 1995". www.cnn.com.
  9. ""World Leaders in Attendance at the Funeral of the Late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  10. "Eulogy for the Late Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin by U.S. President Bill Clinton." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  11. "Eulogy for the Late Prime Minister and Defense Yitzhak Rabin by His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  12. "http://vorige.nrc.nl/redactie/Web/Nieuws/19951106/01.html" NRC Handelsblad, 6 November 1995.
  13. "Eulogy for the Late Prime Minister and Defense Yitzhak Rabin by Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  14. "Eulogy for the Late Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin by Felipe Gonzalez, Prime Minister of Spain and Current EU President." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  15. "Eulogy for the Late Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin by Acting Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  16. "Eulogy for the Late Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin by Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  17. "Eulogy for the Late Prime Minister and Defense Yitzhak Rabin by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  18. Eulogy for the Late Prime Minister and Defense Yitzhak Rabin by President Ezer Weizman." 6 November 1995. Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  19. Schmemann, Serge (December 6, 1995). "Rabin's Killer Charged With Murder, 2 Others With Conspiracy". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2009.
  20. "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: ...
  21. Fay Cashman, Greer (Nov 4, 2005). "Katsav: No pardon for Rabin's assassin". Jerusalem Post. p. 3. Archived from the original (full access requires payment) on January 27, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2009. 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.