REQUEST TO ISRAEL POLICE TO OPEN AN INVESTIGATION

by Barry Chamish

We are a group of Israeli citizens united in our desire to have two confusing aspects of the Rabin assassination investigated by Israel Police. We believe the issues we raise contribute to a strong suspicion that crimes of evidence tampering and false testimony may have taken place. We maintain that unless the suspicions are resolved, our society will be badly damaged and respect for our police, legal and medical institutions deeply lowered.

Issue Number One:

The Shamgar Commission Of Inquiry Into The Rabin Assassination concluded that Yitzhak Rabin was shot twice by Yigal Amir from between thirty and fifty cm. distance.

We submit for your investigation, the testimony of Chief Lieutenant Baruch Gladstein of the Israel Police Criminal Laboratory from the protocols of the trial of Yigal Amir. His testimony, given on 28/1/96 and found in pages 73-76 of the protocols, appears to prove scientifically that Yitzhak Rabin was shot from point blank range. Please note his testimony on page 75, beginning on line 2: "The second bullet hole was found on the bottom, left side of the jacket and it had all the characteristics of a point blank shot, including a large amount of lead and a six cm. tear, which are the classic signs of a point blank shot."

We insist that no witnesses saw Rabin shot from point blank range and the amateur film of the assassination confirms that Yigal Amir never came close to shooting from 0 distance.

If Chief Lieutenant Gladstein's testimony is correct, as we are inclined to believe, then the findings of the Shamgar Commission must be wrong. We request that you investigate Chief Lieutenant Gladstein's conclusions to confirm or deny their veracity.

Issue Number Two:

In the Pathological Report on Yitzhak Rabin's body prepared by State Pathologist Dr. Yehuda Hiss, he concludes in clause Number 18: "There are no breaks in the vertebrae of the spinal cord."

We submit the following evidence which contradicts that conclusion:

1. The Surgeon's Procedural Report signed at 11:30 PM, Nov. 4 by Rabin's attending surgeon, Dr. Mordechai Gutman. On page six he describes the following: "A gunshot wound which traversed the upper lobe of the lung, leaving a 2.5-3 cm. exit wound, which continued to Dorsal Vertebrae 5-6, shattering the vertebrae."

2. The Surgical Summary, signed by Dr. Gutman and nurse Svetlana Slimovitz on the same evening and authorized by two other doctors, one anaesthesiologist, and another nurse. On page 3, one of Rabin's wounds is described in English as "Spinal Trauma" which can only be caused by the shattering of the spinal cord or vertebrae.

3. A video tape of Ichilov Hospital Director Dr. Gabi Barabash and then Health Minister Ephraim Sneh, on Channel One television, from the evening of November 4/95. Dr. Sneh reports that Rabin was "shot three times; in the chest cavity, in the stomach and in the spine." Dr. Barabash reports that Rabin died of "spinal shock."

Based on Dr. Hiss's pathological report, the Shamgar Commission concluded that Rabin suffered no spinal damage. The amateur film of the assassination shows Rabin continuing to walk after the only possible shot to his spine, a medical impossibility if his spine was shattered.

We submit that Dr. Hiss's conclusion of no injury to the spinal cord and vertebrae is in direct contradiction to the reports of 8 doctors and nurses who were in the operating room. We request an investigation to determine the truth: Was Rabin's spine damaged as reported by the operating room physicians and nurses, or was it undamaged as reported by Dr. Hiss?

We maintain that we draw no final conclusions regarding the findings of Chief Lieutenant Baruch Gladstein or Dr. Yehuda Hiss, nor are we making allegations against them. However, we note, that both men submitted legal testimony which directly contradicts other legal testimony. We request that Israel Police investigate both matters and present the public with the truth.

Date: March 10/1999

Signed: