On the evening of November 4, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, the 73-year-old Prime Minister of Israel, was murdered at a peace rally in Tel Aviv. The man who killed him was Yigal Amir, then 25, who was arrested in Tel Aviv. On March 27, 1996 the Tel Aviv District Court convicted Amir of premeditated murder and of aggravated assault of a security guard, and sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder and six years for the assault. The court rejected a defense request that he be convicted only of manslaughter. In August 1996 the Supreme Court of Israel rejected his appeal unanimously. In September 1996 he was convicted of a separate conspiracy, together with his brother and a third man, and he received a further term that the Supreme Court of Israel increased in 1999.
Amir has remained in Israeli custody since the night of the murder. A state commission of inquiry, chaired by the President of the Supreme Court, reported within five months that the security arrangements around the Prime Minister had failed. In 2001 the Knesset passed a law aimed at ruling out any reduction of the sentence of a prime minister's murderer, and in October 2026, thirty-one years after the murder, the President of Israel again rejected any clemency for him.
Yigal Amir was born on May 23, 1970 in Herzliya, Israel. He was 25 at the time of the murder and at his sentencing. The later proceedings against his brother and a third man concerned a separate conspiracy.
Yitzhak Rabin was serving as Prime Minister of Israel when he was murdered. He was 73. The rally at which he was killed was a peace rally held in Tel Aviv, in the square that was later renamed in his memory as Rabin Square. A security guard who was accompanying him was also injured; the assault on that guard became the second count on which Amir was convicted.
Israel has no death penalty, so life imprisonment was the most severe sentence available to the court.
Amir was arrested in Tel Aviv on the night of the murder. His brother was arrested the following day. Four days after the murder the government appointed a commission of inquiry into the circumstances of the assassination, with Meir Shamgar, the President of the Supreme Court, as chairman and with a retired general and a university professor as the other two members. The Shamgar Commission began its work on November 19, 1995 and issued its conclusions and recommendations on March 28, 1996, the day after Amir was sentenced.
The commission concluded that the murder had been made possible by failures in the arrangements for protecting the Prime Minister. It found a lack of cooperation among the security agencies responsible for protecting public events and criticized the General Security Service (the Shin Bet) for how it assessed information about threats, including the risk that a Jewish assailant might act against the Prime Minister, and for how it passed that assessment to the Prime Minister's protective detail. The head of the Shin Bet resigned before the commission finished its work, as did the head of its security division. The commission recommended that the head of the unit responsible for protecting senior figures not remain in his post, that a senior service official not hold a command position, and that the unit's staff be doubled. It also recommended a review of procedures for cooperation between the police and the Shin Bet, and it censured the police commander responsible for the rally area.
The trial court and the Shamgar Commission both rejected conspiracy theories about the killing and concluded that Amir was guilty of murder.
Amir was tried before a three-judge panel of the Tel Aviv District Court. The trial ran from late January to late March 1996. He was charged with premeditated murder of the Prime Minister and with aggravated assault of the security guard, and the court convicted him on all counts. On March 27, 1996 it sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder and to six years for the assault. The defense asked the court to convict him of manslaughter instead of murder, and the court refused.
Amir appealed against his conviction and sentence. On Sunday, August 4, 1996 a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court of Israel rejected the petition unanimously. The justices said there was no doubt that he had murdered the Prime Minister. They dismissed the arguments put forward by his lawyers that another person had been responsible, describing them as fictional detective stories, and they upheld the life sentence.
Amir's brother, Hagai Amir, and a third man, Dror Adani, were tried together with him on a separate charge of conspiracy. In September 1996 the Tel Aviv District Court convicted all three of conspiring to murder the Prime Minister. The brother was also convicted of offenses under the arms law. The three men were also convicted of planning to murder Palestinians.
On Thursday, October 3, 1996 the court sentenced the three. Yigal Amir received five years, to run after his life sentence and the six years for the assault. Hagai Amir, who had faced a maximum of 78 years, was sentenced to 12 years. Dror Adani, who faced a maximum of 29 years, was sentenced to seven years.
The prosecution appealed against the leniency of the sentences. On Sunday, August 29, 1999 the Supreme Court of Israel increased Yigal Amir's five-year term by three years, to eight years, and increased Hagai Amir's 12-year term by four years, to 16. Hagai Amir was released on May 4, 2012 after serving his sentence.
Amir has been held in Israel since 1995, in solitary confinement. In August 2004 he married by proxy, a marriage recognized by the rabbinical court and not by the civil courts. The Supreme Court of Israel ruled on March 7, 2005 against conjugal visits, and further requests about visits were brought before the courts in later years.
In October 2010 the Petah Tikva District Court rejected a petition in which he sought to change his status as a security prisoner and to extend his visiting rights. The court held that the Shin Bet's decisions on visits were reasonable and rested on security grounds. In October 2019 the Supreme Court of Israel, on appeal from the Lod District Court, upheld restrictions that the custody authorities had imposed after a telephone call with a clear political content. The restrictions covered calls, visits, newspapers and electrical appliances.
In November 2017 his wife announced that a defense team was being formed to ask the court for a retrial. A former deputy attorney general said that the request had very little chance of success, because a retrial in Israel requires showing that the prosecution's original evidence was false or presenting new evidence that could not have been available at the time. The request was filed with the Supreme Court later that month.
In Israel a prisoner serving a life sentence may ask the President for a pardon or a reduction of the sentence, and life sentences are usually reduced to between 20 and 30 years. The President acts on the advice of a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge. In December 2001 the Knesset passed a law, sponsored by a member of the Meretz party, that prevents that advisory committee from considering requests to reduce the sentences of those who murder a prime minister. The vote was 62 to six, with eight abstentions.
On October 22, 2026, at a ceremony at the President's Residence marking 31 years since the murder, President Isaac Herzog ruled out any clemency for Amir and said that he must never be released. The remark came as public calls for his release were being made.
In the years after the trial, claims were made that a second person had been involved in the death of the Prime Minister. The Supreme Court of Israel, in its August 1996 ruling, rejected the claims put by Amir's lawyers as fictional detective stories. The Shamgar Commission examined whether the Shin Bet had been aware of the plan and allowed it to go ahead, and its report, declassified in 1997, rejected that suggestion and described serious flaws in how the service handled its informants. Amir's own legal status is unchanged: his conviction for murder and the life sentence stand.
May 23, 1970: Yigal Amir is born in Herzliya.
November 4, 1995: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is murdered at a peace rally in Tel Aviv; Amir is arrested.
November 5, 1995: Amir's brother is arrested.
November 8, 1995: the government appoints the Shamgar Commission.
November 19, 1995: the commission begins its work.
January to March 1996: trial in the Tel Aviv District Court.
March 27, 1996: Amir is sentenced to life imprisonment (murder) and six years (aggravated assault).
March 28, 1996: the Shamgar Commission issues its conclusions and recommendations.
August 4, 1996: the Supreme Court of Israel unanimously rejects his appeal.
September 1996: Amir, his brother and a third man are convicted of conspiracy.
October 3, 1996: the conspiracy sentences are handed down (five, 12 and seven years).
August 29, 1999: the Supreme Court of Israel adds three years to Amir's conspiracy term and four to his brother's.
December 19, 2001: the Knesset passes the law barring consideration of commutation for a prime minister's murderer.
August 2004: Amir marries by proxy.
March 7, 2005: the Supreme Court of Israel rejects his appeal for conjugal visits.
May 4, 2012: his brother is released.
November 2017: a request for a retrial is announced and filed.
October 6, 2019: the Supreme Court of Israel upholds restrictions imposed on him in custody.
October 22, 2026: the President of Israel rules out any pardon.