Mordechai Kedar: Yigal Amir didn't kill Yitzhak Rabin

During a speech in support of Prime Minister Netanyahu in Petak Tikva, the Bar-Ilan University professor claimed that he had seen documents refuting that Amir was the real killer.

By ALEX WINSTON
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a memorial ceremony for the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem as Israel marks the 22nd anniversary of Rabin's killing by an ultra-nationalist Jewish assassin, November 1, 2017 (photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a memorial ceremony for the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem as Israel marks the 22nd anniversary of Rabin's killing by an ultra-nationalist Jewish assassin, November 1, 2017
(photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)
Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, claimed on Tuesday that Yigal Amir was not the person who murdered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and that a senior politician most likely wanted to sabotage the Oslo agreements.
Kedar was called into the university on Wednesday to speak with a disciplinary committee and was consequentially suspended from official representation of the university at overseas conferences until further notice.
Kedar’s remarks were made during a rally to support Prime Minister Netanyahu held in Petah Tikva under the headline: “Netanyahu, you will never walk alone.”
“Twenty-four years ago, the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered,” Kedar told the crowd, “and the attempt to hide what happened continues to this day.
“The guilt of the Right continues to this day,” he said. “And how do I know it’s been silenced? For 25 years I was in the Intelligence Corps. I’ve seen tens of thousands of documents that are ‘confidential.’”
“Why ‘confidential?’” Kedar asked the audience, answering: “Ladies and gentlemen, much of the investigation into Rabin’s murder are still [in] secret documents to date.”
Kedar presented a sample document to the audience, declaring, “This is one of them, which came to my hands in a wonderfully legal way.”
After laying the ground for his claim, the lecturer declared: “The person who murdered Rabin was a man whose initials are Y.R., but not Yitzhak Rabin.” Kedar said. “The person behind this is probably a leading politician, who wanted to eliminate Rabin because he wanted to get out of the Oslo Accords.”
At the end of his remarks, the university lecturer called for a re-investigation of the murder.
“I call here to remove the false ‘confidential’ title from these documents that do not fit in with the theory that the Right murdered Rabin,” he said. “For 24 years, the Right and Bar-Ilan University have been discouraged because of what Yigal Amir may not have done. He is in prison in solitary confinement. Why in solitary confinement? So that he doesn’t tell the truth to anyone.”

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Netanyahu said in response to Kedar’s speech, “Prime Minister Netanyahu condemns the nonsensical remarks in relation to Yigal Amir, the murderer of Yitzhak Rabin.”
RABIN WAS assassinated on the evening of November 4, 1995 in Tel Aviv by right-wing extremist Amir, who opposed the signing of the Oslo Agreements. In the 24 years since, many conspiracy theories have surfaced suggesting that it was not Amir who actually killed Rabin, or that he was not working alone.
The Yitzhak Rabin Center responded to the speech in a statement saying, “Every year on the Prime Minister’s Memorial Day, the headlines are inundated with conspiracy theorists looking for their 15 minutes of fame. The Rabin Center will continue to stand on the side of truth and justice, and will focus on strengthening democracy and the rule of law.”
The center also said that it will work to serve as an educational center that will set boundaries around “controversy, incitement and dissemination of anarchy, so that the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 24 years ago will be the last political murder in the State of Israel.”
Yediot Aharonot journalist Amichai Attali also responded on Twitter, writing: “I went in with him [Amir] again and again to the question of the conspiracy (which even slightly offends him). After all, he checked the pistol’s bullets before leaving home, among other things for fear of a conspiracy, as with the Kahalani brothers. He had intent and means, and he used it. And he’s not trying to deny it.”
The Kahalani brothers were extreme right-wing brothers from Kiryat Arba who, in the summer of 1994, held a neutralized M-16 rifle to the head of an Arab man and fired, before being caught by agents of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Labor-Gesher leader Amir Peretz strongly condemned Kedar’s speech at the rally, saying, “Netanyahu and his supporters are again on the balcony in Zion Square. The mouth is Kedar’s mouth, maybe the text too; the atmosphere is Netanyahu’s atmosphere.”
The Labor leader continued, “Lessons from the murder have not been learned and incitement continues. History cannot be rewritten by an entire side, the same side that [did] the incitement that led to murder. The Labor Party, headed by me, will continue to fight for Rabin’s path.”
Democratic Union MK Stav Shapir attacked the prime minister for his support of the event.
“It is surprising that the killer himself has not yet been invited to send a speech from prison to back up Netanyahu’s claim of persecuting the enforcement system of the Right,” she wrote on Twitter. “There is no moral or redline. What confidence can you build with Bibi? The most important task is to keep this dangerous man away from all the centers of power.”
Earlier this year, Yaron Zilberman’s Incitement, a drama about Amir, won the Ophir Award for Best Picture. The film drew some ire.



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