TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Former Israel security service director Carmi Gilon said the fact that Yitzhak Rabin's assassin is still alive is a failure of Israeli security.
On Nov. 4, 1995, Yigal Amir shot Israeli Prime Minister Rabin twice as he left a pro-peace rally promoting the Oslo agreements in Tel Aviv. Rabin subsequently died in hospital from hemorrhaging and a punctured lung.
Gilon, who at the time headed Israel's Sherut ha-Bitachon ha-Klali, more familiarly known as Shin Bet, said that the agents guarding Rabin should have shot and killed Amir, if not after he fired the first bullet, then definitely after he fired the second.
Gilon added, "If the bodyguards had killed Amir on the spot, he wouldn't have become a symbol for the radical right wing."
Amir was arrested at the scene.
Amir, a law student at Bar-Ilan University, was an extremist right-wing activist who was deeply upset when Rabin signed the Oslo Accords.
Amir received a life sentence for the murder. His brother was also sentenced for complicity in the crime. Amir is incarcerated in Ayalon prison.
Arutz Sheva news agency reports that Amir's parents are circulating petitions for Amir's release, along with that of his brother Haggai, stating that 10 years in solitary confinement is sufficient punishment for anyone.
