Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, was assassinated at a political rally at Tel Aviv in November of 1995. His killer, Yigal Amir, is serving a life-sentence in prison. Amir was somehow able to speak via telephone to journalists for two private news agencies. One of those news agencies still plans to air their interview, the other has bowed to overwhelming censorship efforts trying to prevent anyone from hearing Amir’s words.
Ben Dror Yemini, an editorialist for the Maariv daily, claimed that airing Yigal Amir’s statements doesn’t contribute to freedom of expression. It has been suggested that there is a concerted Israeli effort to prevent anyone from having media contact with Amir. Apparently no one in the Israeli government is concerned with Amir’s motivations, or the possibility that understanding why he did what he did, what makes him tick, may lead to the prevention of a similar assassination attempt in the future.
What is most apalling, it is a collective effort to silence the media, by a U.S. ally. Our own government has condemned many nations for trying to control their media, yet Israel is free to do as they please. Interesting, isn’t it? While I might agree that someone like a political assassin shouldn’t have free reign to do as he likes, it is a horrible sin to deny others the right to an attempt at understanding him. We often try to understand things that are both familiar and unfamiliar to us. We as a people embrace the distasteful, so that we may come to know why it is distasteful. Any effort to deny us understanding is wrong. If we are not allowed the benefit of free thought, free expression, then we are oppressed. One would think a people who had to go through oppression would understand the need to “not repeat” such a thing.
Yigal Amir’s words are freedom of expression. If the Israelis don’t want to hear them, they can simply switch the channel. But, however, to deny others the choice to hear them if they wish, is a crime.
