Activists call to release Yigal Amir

Activists' call to release Rabin assassin is response to proposed Schalit deal.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
yigal amir 298 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
yigal amir 298
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Right-wing activists plan an extensive ad campaign calling for the release of Yitzhak Rabin assassin Yigal Amir, Army Radio reported Thursday. The initiative comes in response to the proposed release of Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for captive IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit. The campaign, sponsored by a group called the Committee for Democracy, is the brainchild of an anonymous American-Jewish millionaire. After the businessman in question learned that Hamas was demanding the release of figures such as Fatah-Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti, now serving five life sentences for five murders, he contacted a number of extreme Right activists - including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel. Another man involved in the initiative, Avigdor Eskin - known for encouraging the pulsa denura curse ceremony against Yitzhak Rabin and placing a pig's head on the grave of terrorist leader Izzadin Kassam - said it was "unacceptable to discriminate against Yigal [Amir] and [his brother] Haggai." Haggai Amir is serving a 16-year sentence for conspiracy to murder Rabin, conspiracy to kill Arabs, and illegally manufacturing, carrying and possessing weapons. "Anyone who supports human rights knows that they shouldn't be treated differently from security prisoners. We all believe this is unjust," Eskin said. The anonymous sponsor of the campaign to free Yigal Amir stressed that he - and many other activists - did not necessarily approve of what Amir had done. However, he said, if Israel were capable of freeing security prisoners "with blood on their hands," then there was no justification for Amir's continued imprisonment.