A GOVERNMENT inquiry into the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin yesterday severely criticised the Shin Bet state security service for failing to protect the prime minister. The agency had exposed Mr Rabin "to unnecessary risks", it found.
Far from being an isolated, on the night failure, the three man commission of inquiry, headed by former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar, found that Mr Rabin was gunned down on November 4th because the whole system of protection around the prime minister had crumbled. The former Shin Bet head, Mr Carmi Gillon, who resigned after the assassination, was held directly responsible for the failure to protect Mr Rabin.
Mr Gillon failed "to draw the necessary operational conclusions" from intelligence warnings he had received that Jewish extremists planned to kill the prime minister, whom they viewed as a traitor for signing a peace accord with the Palestinians. Despite the warnings, the report said, the Shin Bet failed to re evaluate its methods for protecting senior figures.
The commission, which sat for four months and heard 72 witnesses including Mr Gillon, said the former security chief should have ensured his orders were carried out and should have been more involved in on the ground security arrangements.
Mr Gillon said the report had been too harsh on his colleagues and the commission had not fully understood the constraints under which the Shin Bet has to operate, especially in dealing with Jewish extremists. Mr Gillon also warned that the present prime minister, Mr Shimon Peres, was threatened by Jewish extremists: "There are more Jews in the queue next to you to buy cinema tickets, in the queue next to you in the supermarket, who are ready to kill the prime minister."
The commission agreed with Mr Gillon's decision to resign and also held several other senior Shin Bet officials responsible.
Peter Hirschberg is a senior writer with the Jerusalem Report
. Israeli forces yesterday arrested 200 students at Bir Zeit university, 10 per cent of the student body of the most prestigious Palestinian educational institute in the occupied territories. The army said the aim was to arrest suspected guerrillas, the confiscation of weapons and "the rounding up and returning home of Palestinians who were staying in these areas illegally." This refers to students from Gaza attending Bir Zeit. The mass round up will further alienate Palestinians on the West Bank, who feel that the limited gains they made through the Oslo accords are being steadily eroded.