Yigal Amir to be allowed to study with fellow inmate

State prosecutors informed the High Court of Justice on Thursday that Yigal Amir, who is serving a life sentence for the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, will for the first time be allowed to study Jewish texts with another religious inmate within two or three weeks.

Representing the State Prosecutor's Office, Attorney Uri Keidar delivered the message to the court during a discussion on Amir's appeal against a Petach Tikva District Court decision to keep him in solitary confinement for another six months.

In December of 2010, the Supreme Court rejected Amir's request to leave his isolated cell for a wing housing religious prisoners. Instead, the court suggested allowing Amir to join other prisoners for short prayers services in the future, under supervision. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) opposed his request on the grounds that he "continues to follow a radical doctrine which justifies the use of violence against government officials." However, state prosecutors agreed in principle to allow another prisoner to share his isolated cell, an offer which Amir rejected.

Amir's attorney, Ariel Atari, emphasized Thursday that he has been held in isolation for the longest period of time in the country's history. "He is being discriminated against compared to Arab murderers who have murdered dozens of Jews and continue to operate from jail and are not held in isolation, such as Marwan Barghouti or the murderers of the children in Itamar," he told the court, referring to the recent murder of an entire family in the settlement of Itamar. "What will happen if Amir meets another inmate? Let's say he tells him the gravest things, for example that the Knesset should be bombed. Where is the danger? Will the inmate leave the prison and carry it out? Is that the suspicion-"

The High Court of Justice will make its ruling on a different date.