Itzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, was assassinated by a fellow Jew as he left a vast peace rally in Tel Aviv on the evening of Nov. 4. It was the first assassination of an Israeli head of government since the Jewish state was created in 1948.
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While Rabin's death raised immediate questions about the future of the Middle East peace process, his successor, Shimon Peres (hitherto Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister) vowed to continue the push for peace.
Rabin was shot twice at point-blank range as he was entering his car. His assassin, 25-year-old Jewish law student Yigal Amir, was immediately seized by police.
During an appearance in a Tel Aviv court on Nov. 6 Amir confessed to carrying out the assassination, although he was not formally charged with the act during November. He stated that he "acted alone, but maybe with God" and that he had killed Rabin because he was giving Israeli land to the Palestinians.
Despite Amir's assertion that he had acted alone, the security forces arrested a further nine suspected accomplices during November. These included Amir's brother Hagai Amir, Margalit Har-Sheffey, a student colleague of Amir from Bar-Ilan University, and Avishai Raviv, leader of the extreme right-wing Eyal (Jewish Militant Organization). Raviv was released on Nov. 15, and four days later the Israeli media carried reports that he was a paid informant of the Israeli internal security agency Shin Bet.
The apparent ease with which Amir had killed Rabin was a severe embarrassment to the Israeli security forces.
The head of the unit responsible for guarding Rabin, a branch of Shin Bet, resigned on Nov. 8. The next day a State Commission of Inquiry into the assassination was established. Israel radio reported on Nov. 19 that the Cabinet had agreed to set up a special team to counter "Jewish terrorism and the incitement and sedition by the radical right".
In a series of radio and television interviews on Nov. 7, Leah Rabin blamed members of the opposition Likud for helping to create the atmosphere which led to her husband's assassination. She spoke of a recent Likud rally, attended by party leader Binyamin Netanyahu, at which her husband had been portrayed wearing a Nazi uniform.
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