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ISRAELI ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS "INCITEMENT" PLAYED NO ROLE IN RABIN ASSASSINATION

NEW YORK - The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is hoping that a spirit of reconciliation and healing can emerge in Israel and the Diaspora, now that Israel's attorney general has announced that the Rabin assassination was definitely not the result of rightwing "incitement."

After studying the circumstances surrounding the assassination, Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair announced this week that "The person who killed the Prime Minister did not do so under the influence of incitement. He acted due to a complete worldview which he had developed....It wasn't because of a poster here or there." (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 13, 1995)

The poster to which the Attorney General was referring was apparently the photo- montage of Prime Minister Rabin in a Nazi uniform. Israel Television reporter Nitzan Chen has said that Avishai Raviv, an agent of the General Security Services posing as a nationalist activist, distributed the poster and urged Chen to show it on television (over the vehement objections of nationalist demonstrators, who tried to stop Raviv). The father of two Israeli teens arrested in connection with the poster has said that the boys were working with Raviv and attended training camps organized by Raviv.

"The attorney general's statement clears the air once and for all," said Morton A. Klein, ZOA National President. "Those who sought to blame Israeli nationalists for 'inciting' the assassination were mistaken. Now that the false 'incitement' allegation has been put to rest, hopefully Jews in Israel and the Diaspora can undertake a process of meaningful reconciliation, to help heal the wounds inflicted by the tragic assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.