Israel Matzav

Why the Rabin conspiracy theories are alive and well

It's been nearly eleven years since Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated in Tel Aviv, and despite attempts to ridicule them, theories continue to abound as to what really happened that night. Stupid decisions like the one by the government and the courts described below continue to fuel the fire. How can anyone read a decision like this and believe that the government has nothing to hide? Given that the x-rays involved are those of Israel's assassinated Prime Minister, and that one of the petitioners is the man who is the convicted killer, how can anyone argue that the dead man's supposed right to privacy takes precedence over letting the killer try to prove himself innocent? And for that matter, how were the x-rays not part of the evidence in the court proceeding in the first place? If the government has nothing to hide, it should disclose all. If it does have something to hide, it is the duty of every citizen to try to expose it.

Yigal Amir won't be allowed to see slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin's X-rays, which were taken after his murder, as recently reported by Judge Mussia Arad, president of the Jerusalem District Court. The petitioners – Shimon Halevy and Yigal Amir – will cover the NIS 10,000 (USD 2,500) in court charges.


The court backed up the decision of the Health Ministry and Naomi Livni, responsible for freedom of information in the ministry, not to transfer the X-rays to the petitioners. The news was first published in the newspaper Makor Rishon (First Source).

...

On June 11, Shimon Halevy turned to the Health Ministry with a request to obtain copies of Yitzhak Rabin's X-rays that were taken days after his death. He based his claim on the freedom of information law.

On the same day, a response from the Health Ministry was sent to the petitioner declining his request based on the fact that it is not permissible to hand over the medical information of any deceased person, including Yitzhak Rabin, without a waiver of medical privacy signed by the deceased's heirs.

...

Judge Mussia Arad established, "The petition shows that the exposure of the information in the case at hand does not serve the purpose of the freedom of information law. The law states that the authority is not obligated to report information whose exposure will damage the privacy of the deceased individual. The petitioners did not indicate any kind of considerations in support of exposing the information. The petitioners claimed insufficiently that the information has high public value that is hidden from the public eye." [This claim defies all logic. CiJ]

The judge established that the claims that the circumstances of Yitzhak Rabin's murder are different than those known to the public are based on "insignificant, bizarre, and baseless things." [How did she establish that? CiJ]

She added: "The circumstances of Yitzhak Rabin's murder were investigated and resolved both in the framework of the court decision, which represents a conclusive verdict, and in the framework of the commission of inquiry established to investigate the issue." The judge concluded, therefore, that the Health Ministry's decision not to hand over the requested X-rays in the absence of any agreement from the deceased's relatives was in place. [How could the claims have been resolved without the x-rays? And if no one knew about the x-rays, wouldn't they be highly relevant evidence that would justify re-opening the case? CiJ]

If there's nothing to hide, why not give them the x-rays (whether or not Amir actually wants them - which is an issue that the article implies the judge ignored)?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:57 PM