The Israeli Cabinet has formally accepted the findings and recommendations of the three-member government panel charged with investigating the security lapses that made the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin possible.
At Sunday’s weekly meeting, the Cabinet also appointed a committee to oversee implementation of the Shamgar Commission’s recommendations.
In its findings, issues March 28, the panel concluded that Israeli security services had ignored information indicating that a Jewish militant might try to kill the prime minister.
The panel also found flaws in security planning for the Nov. 4 Tel Aviv peace rally at which Rabin was shot.
The commission held 61 meetings and heard 72 witnesses before publishing 214 pages of findings as well as a 118 page classified appendix dealing with the operational methods of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, and police.
Among the panel’s recommendations was a call for the Shin Bet and Israeli police to cooperate more closely.
The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported Sunday that the classified appendix also included a recommendation that the Shin Bet more closely supervise its operatives.
According to the report, the Shin Bet had asked Avishai Raviv, the head of a shadowy extremist group known as Eyal, to monitor Yigal Amir, the 25-year-old religious law students who was sentenced last week to life in prison for killing Rabin.
Ha’aretz reported that Amir’s name did not appear on a list of right-wing extremists being watched by the Shin Bet.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
