Every once in a while I decide to follow or “friend” a right wing politician or group on Facebook and Twitter. You know, to see what they’re up to.
It’s not a big deal, I just press the button and – voila.
But for the past few days my cursor has been hovering ever so gracefully over the name of a certain person on Facebook: Hagai Amir, the brother of Yigal Amir, who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin.
Hagai recently got out of jail after serving 16 years on a conviction for helping his brother do the deed. One of the first things he did as a free man was open a Facebook account. He’s been posting every now and then excerpts of a diary he wrote while in prison. And sometimes he reacts to questions. For example, Chaim Levinson, the Haaretz correspondent on settlers, asked him if he knew Yigal was going that night to the square to kill Rabin. Hagai answered that he did, but didn’t think Yigal would succeed in doing it. Do I detect a bit of sibling rivalry?
But the one everybody was talking about a few days ago was an excerpt he posted that dealt with the Yemenite children affair, which Hagai claims Rabin took part in. Towards the end of the post he writes:
“I am proud that I took part in eliminating one of those who are responsible for these things and I’m sorry I can’t do more to bring people who were responsible for it…”
He was proud when he wrote it back then in 1996, and he’s proud today, when he posts it on Facebook.
Anyway, I pressed the button.
I’ll keep you posted if and when I become a friend of the brother of Rabin’s assassin.