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22 Adar 5759 - March 10, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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How Was Yitzhak Rabin Killed?

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

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.


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