A new political party dedicated to securing the release of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, and led by Amir’s wife, Larisa Trembovler, will be allowed to register itself for the 2020 Knesset election – on condition that it does not endorse Amir’s killing of Rabin, Yediot Aharonot reported Monday morning.
In November 1995, Amir, then a 25-year-old law student at Bar Ilan University, shot and killed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as he left a rally in Tel Aviv.
Amir confessed to the killing, saying that he had murdered Rabin to prevent the continuation of the Oslo process with the Palestinian Authority, and was sentenced to life, plus 14 years in prison.
Despite his confession, some have argued that Amir was not actually responsible for Rabin’s death. Earlier this year, Bar Ilan professor Mordechai Kedar sparked controversy when he claimed that Amir was not the assassin.
Amir’s wife, Larisa Trembovler, who married Amir a decade after the assassination, has lobbied for his release.
Working in conjunction with his wife, Amir sought to promote the establishment of a political party dedicated to securing his release from prison, allegedly soliciting the involvement of Israeli rapper Yoav Eliasi, better known by his stage name “Hatzel” (The Shadow). Eliasi reportedly rejected the offer to help lead the party.
The party, tentatively named “Nura Deliba”, was not registered for either of the Knesset elections in 2019.
Now, however, the party, renamed “Mishpat Tzedek”, may have a shot at running in the next election.
According to the report by Yediot Aharonot Monday, the election committee’s registrar is prepared to register the party, if it does not endorse the Rabin assassination.
Based on the opinion of attorney Eyal Globus, if the new party simply calls for the repeal of a law preventing the President of Israel from pardoning Amir, there is no basis for barring the party from registering to run.
The party, which is led by Amir’s wife, Larisa; his mother, Geula Amir; his father Shlomo Amir; and his brother, Haggai Amir, would still likely face attempts to bar it from running in the March 2nd election, even if it were permitted to register itself.
Left-wing lawmakers previously vowed to challenge the party’s ability to run for the Knesset in the Israel Central Elections Committee if it is allowed to register.