More than one in four Israeli Jews want Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin released early from prison.
According to a survey in Monday’s Ma’ariv, 26 percent of Israeli Jews think that Yigal Amir, who is serving a life term in prison for the 1995 murder of the prime minister, should go free after he completes 20 years behind bars. Fifty-nine percent want him jailed until he dies; the rest are undecided.
The poll found that support for Amir winning clemency is especially pronounced among religious Jews — 38 percent of whom said the Orthodox former law student should be released now. According to Ma’ariv, 46 percent of religious Jews in Israel do not believe Amir, who is jailed in isolation, was responsible for the Rabin assassination.
The poll had 500 respondents and a 4.4 percent margin of error. It was conducted in part due to reports that Amir’s wife, Larisa Trimbobler, with whom he had a conjugal visit, is about to give birth to their first child.
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.
