Margalit Har-Shefi, who was convicted of failing to prevent the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was sentenced today in the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court to nine months imprisonment, and a fifteen month suspended sentence. In passing sentence, the judge, Nira Lidesky, found that Har-Shefi knew of Yigal Amir’s plot to murder Rabin. The judge added that, although the consequences of the murder for the Israeli public could not be laid at her door, as she had no hand in the murder, its planning , or in lending any assistance, and did not even know the date it would be carried out, her failure should be seen as a contribution to what happened.
Judge Lidesky said it was possible that, had Har-Shefi shown a greater measure of responsibility, as she was bound to do by law, and taken reasonable measures to prevent the crime being committed, the abominable murder might never have taken place.
The judge stressed that had she not been conscious of Har-Shefi’s youth, the suffering and unpleasantness that she had undergone since the murder, and the possibility of future consequences for her life, she would have sentenced her to a more severe punishment than that which she imposed on her.
After sentence was passed, Har-Shefi’s lawyer announced his intention of appealing to the Tel Aviv District Court against his client’s conviction, on the grounds that the verdict was legally and factually wrong.
For the first time since the start of her trial, Margalit Har-Shefi responded, saying that she wished she could have prevented the murder, when, in her words, no-one imagined this terrible thing was really about to happen.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on September 27, 1998