Like a superstar
Photo: Gil Yochanan
Yigal Amir: Murderer turned celebrity
How come PM Rabin's assassin continues to stay focus of public eye? Experts blame Amir's supporters, media and education system
How did the prime minister’s assassin become a personality that everyone is interested in? How did Yigal Amir, who was supposed to be kept in isolation during his prison sentence, become a media icon and repeatedly the focus of the public eye?
Political Sociology professor at University of Tel Aviv and the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Jaffa Avishai Ehrlich claimed that Amir’s supporters were interested in keeping his name in headlines in any way, as long as he wasn’t forgotten.
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“The murder of the American President John Kennedy was covered less because he was an individual. But Amir belongs to a group, and that group is still dangerous and active,” Ehrlich said.
“The groups that stand behind Amir are still active, and their biggest fear is that Amir will be forgotten. So they work a lot on the internet and in the media to get him in headlines. Even putting up the whole story with Larissa, which was seemingly ludicrous, did the trick – he was back in the headlines. Even the media fell for it,” he continued.
'Perverted and bizzare'
Ehrlich explained that the fact that the political system is leaning increasingly more to the right supports the atmosphere that enables these groups to act.He added, “The struggle of human rights depicts him differently, and triggers a mechanism of a fight for his rights. Many prisoners are allowed conjugal visits and it shouldn’t interest anyone.”
He explained that the minute Shin Bet get involved, it prompts the human rights organizations, which then prompt rightist activists, and things end up reaching the media and causing a dialogue.
Professor Yoram Peri, head of Tel Aviv University’s Chaim Herzog Institute for Media Politics and Society, said, “The educational system escaped all interest of political education in Israel. Rabin doesn’t appear at all in political debate, they only relate to the man with songs, that nice grandpa.”
Peri also claimed that the media has an important role, in that it deals with “what’s hot, perverted and bizarre. Dealing with Yigal Amir is just that”.
'Like a fart'
Dr. Yariv Ben Eliezer of the Sammy Ofer School of Communications at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, thinks, however, that Yigal Amir has not turned into a celebrity: "It's like a fart – makes noise, leaves a bad smell, and then evaporates."He claimed that "from the historical and educational aspect it's irrelevant if he has a baby or not. And it's irrelevant to the fact that the education and political system did not implement the lessons of the murder of a prime minister in Israel. The thing is that the younger generation does not learn about democracy and democratic values. That's why they are unable to implement the educational lessons in our society."
However, Ben-Eliezer said he doubts that a third of the public supports pardoning Amir. "It depends on the way in which the poll is presented. I hear different responses."
In a bid to battle the trend, publicist Gil Samsonov published Thursday a petition calling for the enactment of a law that would isolate political murderers and put them in "physical, human and media isolation."
Some 200 public figures have signed the petition so far. According to the proposal, "The murderer will be cut off from any human interaction, any human ear, eye or hand; from his guards as well as from his family. We shall be disconnected from the murderer, his opinions, thoughts, needs, views, from today and until the day he dies."
