On Wednesday, maverick journalist Barry Chamish is planning
to file a complaint with the police in Tel Aviv charging
irregularities and contradictions in several medical reports
of the wounds suffered by the late Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin on the night he was murdered over three years ago.
Chamish has spent considerable time investigating the murder
and the events surrounding it, and he maintains that,
contrary to what is generally accepted, Yigal Amir did not
kill Yitzhak Rabin. He has constructed a very elaborate
theory of the events of that night, but certain parts are
based on reasonable guesses rather than hard evidence.
In order to focus attention on his charges, Chamish has
narrowed his accusations to two suspicious points that are
the subject of his complaint. The official report of the
Shamgar Commission which investigated the murder right after
it took place concluded that Yigal Amir shot Prime Minister
Rabin from a distance of 30 to 50 centimeters (1-2 feet).
This was based on the testimony of eyewitnesses and also a
film taken of the events that showed that Amir came no closer
than that to the slain prime minister.
Nonetheless, Chief Lieutenant Baruch Gladstein of the Israel
Police Criminal Laboratory testified on 28/1/96 at the trial
of Yigal Amir and maintained that Rabin was shot from point
blank range, that is, from a gun held up to his body.
Another problem that Chamish has found is that State
Pathologist Dr. Yehuda Hiss, concluded: "There are no breaks
in the vertebrae of the spinal cord."
However, a report written and signed at 11:30 P.M., Nov. 4
(the night of the assassination ) by Rabin's attending
surgeon, Dr. Mordechai Gutman describes a gunshot wound that
shattered "Dorsal Vertebrae 5-6." Also, a video tape of
Ichilov Hospital Director Dr. Gabi Barabash and Health
Minister Ephraim Sneh, from the evening of November 4/95
shows Dr. Sneh reporting that Rabin was "shot three times; in
the chest cavity, in the stomach and in the spine." Dr.
Barabash reports that Rabin died of "spinal shock."
The Shamgar Commission, based on Dr. Hiss's report, concluded
that Rabin suffered no spinal cord damage. This is also
appears to be the case based on the film made of Amir's
shots: Rabin took a few steps afterwards, something he could
not have done if his spinal cord was damaged.
These are certainly points which bear further clarification.
Since the media and the legal authorities have so far ignored
Chamish and his charges, his hope is to have a number of
people sign the complaint to force an investigation to get at
the truth.
