Court says prison was entitled to deny Rabin killer’s privileges over phone call

The Lod District Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition by the Jewish extremist who assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin against restrictions imposed on him after he used his phone for political lobbying.

Yigal Amir went on a hunger strike for a week in August, in protest of prison authorities’ confiscating his telephone for two months after he used it, in violation of prison rules, as part of an attempt to form a political party to lobby for his own freedom.

Amir was also denied family visits, conjugal visits, newspapers and access to electrical appliances.

Amir had been alone in his cell for years, but normally had access to television and other privileges.

He was sentenced by the prison’s commander to seven days in solitary confinement in a cell with only basic amenities after he made a call to Yoav Eliasi, a rapper and far-right activist known as “The Shadow.”

Amir asked Eliasi to help fight for his release. The rapper rejected his request.

In a recording of the phone call aired by a Channel 13 news show, Amir can be heard talking to Eliasi about efforts to establish a political party that would push for his release.

“I don’t think you’re the type of person I’m interested in developing a dialogue with,” Eliasi tells Amir.

According to Judge Ido Druyan-Gamliel, the conversation between Eliasi and Amir was “clearly concerned with political content,” and therefore there was no fault with the prison commander’s decision to deny rights to the prisoner.

In undercover footage aired by the network last month, dozens of activists were seen meeting at a synagogue in Jerusalem to fill out paperwork and gather the 120 signatures needed to register a party with the Knesset’s Central Elections Committee.

Among those seen in the footage are Amir’s wife, Larissa Trimbobler, and his brother and co-conspirator, Hagai, who was jailed for nearly 17 years for helping plot Rabin’s November 4, 1995, assassination.

The party, named “Nura Deliba,” which translates as “Fire of the Heart” in Aramaic, did not not end up registering to run in the September 17 elections.

In response to the restrictions, Amir went on a hunger strike for a week, which Trimbobler said was also designed to protest Amir’s detention in solitary confinement for years, which she claimed did not have court approval.