"The State is obligated to appease the young woman after it has become understood that she is innocent of any crime."
In the spirit of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and Forgiveness, Rabbi Yaakov Medan allowed Omedia to publish a report on his efforts to clear the name of Margalit Har-Shefi.
Rabbi Medan turned to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz this summer after two General Security Service (Shin Bet) chiefs openly and pointedly said that Margalit Har-Shefi had not known of Yigal Amir's plan to kill then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Even so, however, her criminal conviction for not stopping that crime - for which she sat in jail for six months - still stands.
The first of those statements apparently exonerating Har-Shefi was written by former Shin Bet chief Carmi Gilon in his book "Shabak Bein HaKra'im" (Between the Tatters of the General Security Service). He wrote, "Dror Adani was familiar with part of Yigal Amir's operative ideas [but] Har-Shefi did not know about them." Later, in April 2007, another Shin Bet chief, Ami Ayalon, who today is a Knesset Member, said at an activist convention in Ashkelon, on April 20, 2007, that "Har-Shefi did not know about Yigal Amir's plans."
A Mazuz aide responded that the Attorney General is not interested in the Rabbi's request, but that Har-Shefi herself does have the option of asking for a retrial.
"When someone does a very big wrong to another person, he is obligated to make amends to that person."
Rabbi Medan was disappointed by that response, saying, "When someone does a very big wrong to another person, he is obligated to make amends to that person. The injured person doesn't have to be the one who is forced to run after the injurer and beg, 'appease me'."