Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Charedi World

17 Cheshvan 5760 - October 27, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Sponsored by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Produced and housed by
Jencom

News
Steimatzky's Censorship of Rabin Assassination Book

by S. Yisraeli

The Steimatzky chain of book stores has decided to remove a book on the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin from its shelves.

The book is Who Murdered Yitzchak Rabin? by journalist Barry Chamish, and it tells a very different story than what the public has been told to believe until now.

The decision to remove the book was made after One Israel MK Ori Paz complained. He claimed the book was "so full of lies that it represents a blow to democracy, the rule of law, and everything else that is connected with this... "

Critics charged that it simply asks questions that Paz does not want asked.

Barry Chamish himself recently summarized his case for Arutz- 7:

"Police and court reports and hospital papers indicate that the murder did not occur the way the Shamgar Commission determined, nor in the way State Pathologist Dr. Yehuda Hiss reported.

"Yigal Amir shot only blank bullets, as the guards at the time screamed, and he was undoubtedly only the scapegoat."

Some of the book's main points are:

Variance of physical evidence: powder burns on Rabin's clothing, which, according to ballistic experts, could only have occurred if the gun was pressed against Rabin's body.

A film of the event, however, shows Amir at a distance from Rabin when he fired his shots. The film shows that Rabin was unhurt, and walking upright, after the shots were fired. Yet by the time he got to the hospital, he was unconscious from loss of blood, and suffering gaping wounds.

The film shows a back door of the limousine being slammed before Rabin's entry into the car, even though supposedly, no one else was in the car at the time.

The death certificate states that Rabin was shot in the chest and that his spine was shattered. Only later did the doctors change the cause of death to "shots to the back."

Rabin's veteran driver "could not find" the direct route to the hospital and did not radio ahead. When Rabin arrived, the medical staff was not prepared to treat him.

Arutz-7 asked Steimatzky Chairman Yehoshua Matzliach why the book was removed from its stores' shelves:

"Do you remove books based on political pressures?"

"No," replied Matzliach, "we did so because of reactions by customers who commented that the book disturbs them, and then when Paz wrote us, this simply lit the flame..."

Segal then asked why recent books that infuriated the right- wing were not removed from the shelves.

"This was a personal decision by myself, and it could be that I'm extra sensitive," Matzliach answered.

"In any event, we will still sell the book, and whoever wants it can order it and we'll get it for him from the back room or from wherever it is."

Matzliach said that he thinks this is only the fourth book in the past 21 years that has been removed from Steimatzky book shelves; he mentioned two others--Hitler's Mein Kampf and a book about Baruch Goldstein. That in itself tells you his mindset. He has placed this book in the same category as Mein Kampf.


All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.