Ministers to get look at Rabin report
most of the ministers said that they did not believe there was any need for a second investigation, as has been demanded by Rabin family.
| Prime Minister Ehud Barak yesterday expressed full confidence in the Shamgar Commission's investigation into the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, saying that he had faith in former Supreme Court Justice Meir Shamgar, who headed the commission. Barak spoke at a cabinet meeting where the subject of a new investigation into the assassination came up extemporaneously. Barak said he will allow ministers to view the top-secret classified sections of the Shamgar Commission's report, which deal with Shin Bet operational procedures, including the employment of Avishai Raviv, an undercover agent who worked for the security service as an informer on the extreme right wing. Barak added that if Rabin's family - or anyone else - wished to investigate the committee's findings, then their request would be passed on to Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein, who would then determine a further investigation was necessary. "As someone who has read the report into the murder," said Barak, "I am thoroughly convinced that there is no basis for any conspiracy theory." During the meeting, most of the ministers said that they did not believe there was any need for a second investigation, as has been demanded by some politicians from the right, as well as the Rabin family. Environment Minister Dalia Itzik attacked the stance taken by the Rabin family over the murder, saying she did not understand them. She called on the prime minister to allow some of the report's secret sections to be published "to put an end to the rumors." Barak then announced that he would allow ministers to view the full report. In the previous government, ministers were allowed to view the full report, but of the current government's Labor and Meretz ministers, only Barak, as opposition leader, was allowed to see the full document. Foreign Minister David Levy said that the attorney general should investigate why questions about the murder are still being asked. "It is my position that the committee headed by Meir Shamgar investigated those matters suggested by the government, but when questions are tossed into the air by the family themselves, it is not possible to ignore them and they must be investigated," said Levy. Meretz leader Yossi Sarid, the education minister, said that while he served on the Knesset's secondary committee on secret services, he came across facts that preceded Rabin's assassination and which he had not known. He said it was doubtful that the Shamgar Committee knew about them. "There were rabbis, who have surnames and first names, who were involved in cries of 'Jew persecutor' and were never investigated, even after the murder," said Sarid. |
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| Publication date - 08/11/1999 |
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