Margalit Har-Shefi, friend of Rabin’s assassin, indicted

JERUSALEM, Feb. 11 (JTA) — A Tel Aviv court has indicted a friend of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin on charges of failing to notify the authorities of Yigal Amir’s plan to kill the prime minister. Margalit Har-Shefi, 22, also was charged Tuesday with giving Amir information about explosives and about how to set up an anti-Arab underground. Appearing in the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court, Har-Shefi said she never took Amir’s plans to kill Rabin seriously. Amir is serving a life sentence for the Nov. 4, 1995, assassination of Rabin at a Tel Aviv peace rally. Amir has stated that he wanted to prevent Rabin from ceding land to the Palestinians. Har-Shefi testified during Amir’s trial that she had heard him discuss killing the prime minister. She testified at his murder trial last July that “hundreds of people heard him talk about [killing Rabin], but no one thought it would happen.” According to court documents, Har-Shefi had phoned Amir’s home immediately after hearing the news of the Rabin assassination, wanting to know if he had carried out the slaying. Har-Shefi was detained two weeks after the assassination and later released without any charges filed. Har-Shefi, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Beit El, knew Amir from their studies at Bar-Ilan University and from rallies they both attended to protest against the peace process. Amir’s brother, Hagai, and a friend, Dror Adani, were convicted in a separate conspiracy trial of plotting to kill Rabin.
Hagai Amir was sentenced last October to 12 years in prison; Adani was sentenced to seven.