Amir Re-enacts Assassination; Bar-ilan Students Knew of Plot

Confessed assassin Yigal Amir re-enacted his crime for Israeli authorities in the Tel Aviv parking lot where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was killed Nov. 4.

With media in attendance and a crowd of angry onlookers, Amir coolly demonstrated the path he took to get to the car that was waiting to take Rabin away from the peace rally in what has since been named “Yitzhak Rabin Square.”

Filmed by police cameras, Amir, 25, pulled out a toy pistol and fired three shots at a policeman who was playing Rabin for the re-enactment.

One Israeli cursed Amir, shouting, “Murderer! Die, maniac!”

Another onlooker, reportedly restrained by police behind a barricade, bitterly asked why there had not been similar security for Rabin on the night he was killed.

Formal charges have not yet been pressed against Amir, or against seven other suspects detained on suspicion of involvement in a conspiracy to kill the Israeli leader.

A Tel Aviv court Thursday extended by another six days the detention of Ramat Gan resident Michael Epstein.

Epstein is suspected of having indirect links to the plot, and of belonging to an extremist group that had planned attacks on Arabs.

In a related development, another suspect arrested in connection with the assassination told his attorney Thursday that Amir had sent him to seek a rabbi’s approval for the murder.

Dror Adani said the rabbi had rejected the idea, citing religious law.

Adani also said that even though he had given Amir an Uzi submachine gun, he denied that he was involved in a plot to kill Rabin.

Meanwhile, the sole woman arrested in connection with the alleged conspiracy, Margalit Harshefi, appealed to the Tel Aviv District court against her continued detention.

Harshefi, 20, told the court that she had been already detained for 48 hours by police the week before and freed. She said her release would not interfere with the investigation.

Harshefi is a student at Bar-Ilan University, the same school attended by Amir.

Another Bar-Ilan student, 23-year-old Hila Frank, who knew Amir and alerted security forces of his plans to kill Rabin, told the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot that she regretted not passing on more detailed information.

Frank said she had gotten to know Amir through demonstrations and other right- wing activities by students on campus.

In June, Amir raised her suspicions that he might be seriously plotting to kill the prime minister in a conversation she had with him on campus, she said.

She alerted another friend, Shlomo Halevy, who later contacted a former commander in the army, who passed the information on to the police.

However, the two agreed that they would not reveal Amir’s name, in the event that he was not serious.

Halevy told a similar story, as reported by Israel Television earlier this week.

After learning of the assassination, Frank said, she was shocked.

“If only I could turn the clock back, it is clear we would have given his full details,” she said.