PM Calls Rabin Assassination Conspiracy Claim ‘Nonsense’

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is rejecting an Israeli professor’s claim that the country’s former leader Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated as part of a conspiracy and that his convicted killer is innocent.

Bar-Ilan University Professor Mordechai Kedar claimed on Tuesday at a rally in support of Netanyahu that Yigal Amir did not kill Rabin but that another gunman did, as part of a political conspiracy.

Amir was convicted in 1996 and is serving a life sentence for the November 1995 killing of Rabin, who spearheaded the peace process with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu, who was the opposition leader at the time, had been accused of inciting anti-Rabin sentiment ahead of the assassination.

Media quoted Netanyahu as condemning Kedar’s “nonsense” about Amir on Wednesday.

Bar Ilan University issued a statement that it “completely condemns” Kedar’s remarks and that his opinions “do not represent the university and its employees. We maintain that there is no place for such remarks in Israeli society.”

The university administration was planning to hold a meeting over the issue. Meanwhile, Kedar has been suspended from representing the institute abroad, including at a conference next week, according to The Times of Israel.

However, the professor was not backing down. On Wednesday, he told Channel 12 that he would rather resign than apologize.