Margalit Har-Shefi interviewed on Channel Two television.

	Rabin Redux Micha Halpern, Jewish.com
	The crime of failing to prevent a crime
	Margalit Har-Shefi

Margalit Har-Shefi, a 25-year-old young woman from Beit El, is scheduled to begin a nine-month jail sentence on March 21. Margalit was convicted of knowing of the intentions of Yigal Amir to murder the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995 and doing nothing to stop it.

"I am being sent to prison today for one reason only: They had to find someone to blame," Margalit Har-Shefi said, shortly after her appeal to Israel's Supreme Court was rejected. "They [wanted] to cover up for an entire network that fell asleep on the job - as if I, a 19-year-old girl at the time, was the one who could have saved the country from this terrible trauma."

Har-Shefi, who studied and participated in anti-Oslo protests together with Yigal Amir between 1993 and 1995, was convicted after it was determined that Amir told her that he had planned to kill the Prime Minister. The Supreme Court ruled that Margalit was therefore aware that he was planning to kill Rabin. Margalit has consistently claimed that if she had suspected that Amir was planning to commit the crime, she would have done everything possible to stop him.

The Har-Shefi case has raised a public outcry, from varied sectors of the Israeli public. Many believe she is being used as a scapegoat for the failed attempts to fully understand and uncover the real story leading up to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

An article written by Uri Elitzur posted on the Margalit Har-Shefi web site points out that GSS head Carmi Gillon said, "We did not even conceive of the possibility of a Jew getting up and killing the Prime Minister." Elitzur questions why professional agents who misinterpreted the information they received were not held responsible for their actions. "The GSS Chief was forced to resign… but he did not go to jail. Is Margalit Har-Shefi going to jail instead of Carmi Gillon?"

Another reason being used by supporters of Har-Shefi to protest her sentence is the case of Avishai Raviv. Raviv, a GSS agent who was active among extremist groups, reportedly befriended Yigal Amir and encouraged him to turn his words into actions. Raviv was only indicted in the case as a result of a public outcry. Raviv's trial has been constantly delayed and is still pending.

Katsav asked to pardon
Grassroots organizations including the Women in Green have asked President Moshe Katsav to pardon Margalit Har-Shefi. Large advertisements that appeared in the Hebrew press last week included impressive lists of signatures from doctors and rabbis.

Rabbi Zalman Melamed of Beit El published an article saying, "A terrible injustice has been perpetrated on Margalit. I call upon the public to cooperate in whatever efforts are needed to help clear her name."

President Katsav made an ambiguous statement regarding the possibility of pardoning Har-Shefi. Katsav said, "I was asked today by Army Radio if I felt that the sentence handed down to Margalit Har-Shefi was justified, and I responded that if a person knows of someone's intention to kill the Prime Minister and does nothing to stop it, that person deserves not nine months in jail, but rather 90 years."

Katsav said that he could only consider a pardon request if it was received directly from Margalit or her family.

Writing in the Beit El journal, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner wrote, "Margalit, we know and believe that you are innocent."

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