AG: No indication Yitzhak Rabin killing was due to incitement
Mazuz comments outrage left; Peace Now: Mazuz paving way for next political assassination in Israel.
By Haaretz Service and Yuval YoazAttorney General Menachem Mazuz sparked furious debate Wednesday by saying that there was "no indication" that the 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin had been sparked by incitement.
On the other hand, Mazuz told the Knesset State Control Committee, "what is certain is that there was a failure of security at the site of the murder."
Rabin was shot dead by right-wing extremist Yigal Amir in November 1995, at a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Vehement opposition at the time to the prime minister's land for peace initiatives, in the form of the Oslo accords, was widely believed to have contributed to the assassination.
Mazuz warned that excessive use of laws against incitement could curb free speech. "The atmosphere within the public has an influence, but it must not be used as an excuse to shut people's mouths," he said.
According to Mazuz, prosecutors have refrained on principle from filing charges against people suspected of incitement. "We do not believe in enforcing the law [as a tool] to change the atmosphere of public life," he said.
"A skullcap does not confer immunity from observing the law," Mazuz continued, "But no one wants to link the words of one person and the acts of another."
"After the Rabin assassination indictments were filed over statements, and beyond the fact that most of them ended without result, this did not prevent the stormiest election campaign in the history of the state, and did not prevent the utterance of firece statements from all directions," Mazuz said.
The Peace Now organization reacted with anger to the attorney general's comments, stating that "The attorney general is himself paving the way for the next political assassination in Israel," Israel Radio reported.
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We in Canada have laws against speach that incites. It was recently successfully used to convict a distinguished person who publically called Jews a " disease" whom Hitler was justified in removing. His Order of Canada was also withdrawn. We here know what Mazuz does not; there is virtue in prohibiting the fouling of the culture with words that incur hatred between groups. I don't doubt that Israel is in greater need of that than we in Canada are. Pity. If ever there were a country that needed our kind of legislation, Israel is it. I hope our Minister of Justice suggests it when he meets with Israel's minister ( and that of neigbouring countries) this winter.
Incitment lies outside the boundaries of the Free Speech Principle. It should not be protected nor legitimized in any form, ccertainly not by the Legal Advisor to the Government, certainly not at his heated time, when cals against PM Sharon are gaining momentum and people contemplate his murder. What did we learn from 1993-1995? I have a strange feeling of déjà vu. I hope the Israeli legal establishment will collect itself before it is not too late. Just a wekk before this controversial statement I sent Mazuz and Attorney General Eran Shendar an article on incitement, indicating similarities between 1993-1995 and 2003-2005 and calling to take stringent measures against people who instigate to murder. Israel cannot afford Mazuz's liberalism. I wonder whether Mazus were liberal to the same extent if the calls for murder were directed against him.
I am the guy who is bringing this issue to the forfront. I built yitzhakrabin.co.il which has the the videos. Kempler video, the Sneh video and all the court documents. I spoke with Mr Mazuz, he saw the videos, etc. and Mr Mazuz knows that this story will break very soon. Mazuz is just preparing the "ground" for others.
FACT! Rabin was assinated by a eminite Jew, a student of Law at Bar-Ilan University AFTER the inciting religious section of Israel got the O.K. from the rabbis who pronounced the Pulsa Denura, and at a rally which was to be for peace, was interrupted by right-wing supporters an d outlawed Kach supporters. Nothing else!
FACT: Rabin was assassinated at a time when his popularity ratings were extremely low and when Palestinian suicide bombings had sapped the strength of the left. After the assassination, Israelis rallied to the side of Peres. (A few months later, after many more suicide bombings, even that boost to his ratings proved temporary.) So the right knows that assassinations are bad policy. And they have taken substantial steps to avoid any incitement to violence--witness the recent gatherings at Sederot, Kfar Maimon, and Netivot, when protestors--including settler leaders--hugged soldiers and policemen.
Hey Mazuz, you genius! How come nobody ever saw the truth before you? Don't forget to remind everyone that there is no proof that the schoolbooks the Palestinian kids study from, the lectures the fundamentalist Muslims get in the Madrassas in Pakistan, the sermons all get in their Friday prayers in the mosques around the World or the hysterical calls for Jihad emanating from terror group leaders, sparked directly or indirectly barbaric terror acts all these years, in Israel and elsewhere around around the Globe. The security apparatus of Israel is at fault for failing to protect its citizens and should therefore be immediately indicted.
Well if criticism of Rabin and Sharon is incitement then Peace Now is guilty of incitement against the AG. Shame on them for being hypocrites
Mazuz's declarations (this is not his first monumental declaration) reflect the poor personality and poor judgement of this mediocre human being that of course mirror the total lack of common sense and inadequacy of the people who chose him for one of the most important jobs in the civil service. Make him a judge on the supreme court now!