The Knesset passed by a large majority a bill that bars someone who kills a prime minister for ideological or political reasons from ever receiving a presidential pardon. The bill was directed at former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassin, Yigal Amir, reflecting the concern that someday he would be pardoned and released from prison.

The so-called "Yigal Amir" bill passed in its second and third readings in the Knesset by a vote of 62 - 6, with 8 abstentions. The bill had been proposed by MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz), who said he "couldn't envision any Knesset member voting against the bill and giving legitimization to future Yigal Amirs."

MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor), chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, said Tuesday that the purpose of the bill wasn't to prevent an imminent pardon of Amir, but rather to prevent a day in the future when such a scenario would be possible.

"Twenty-five years from now, maybe not everyone will remember Rabin," Vilan said. "Maybe we will have achieved peace agreements with our neighbors," he said, suggesting that at that time the desire to keep Amir in prison could no longer be prevalent in the Israeli public.

But MK Michael Kleiner (Herut), who voted against the bill, claimed it was an attempt to portray the Israeli Right as desiring a pardon for Amir. "This is a direct continuation of the attempt to blame the Right for Rabin's murder," he said.

MK Yossi Paritzky (Shinui) also opposed the bill, but at the last minute did not take part in the Knesset vote. "This law distinguishes between different types of blood," he said. "It is not logical in a democratic state, where equality is a supreme principle, for a law to be enacted declaring the prime minister's blood to be redder than that of every other citizen."

MK Dalia Rabin-Pelossof (Labor), daughter of the assassinated prime minister, countered Paritzky's claim by saying that the bill was not personal, but rather intended to safeguard Israeli democracy. "Whoever takes up a gun to enact a political murder, should know that whatever camp he represented would never be able to release him from his punishment" in the future. Even so, she admitted that she was relieved the bill passed, as she "had done the maximum to ensure that Yigal Amir would never be granted a pardon."

Vilan said he hoped the bill would remain "personal" and that the assassination of the prime minister would remain a one-time occurrence.

President Moshe Katsav denied claims made by Pine-Paz that he had exerted pressure on Knesset members to vote against the bill, due to the fact that it harms the institution of the presidency and displays a lack of confidence in the president's judgment.

But the president apparently spoke to several MKs and urged them not to support the bill, Ha'aretz reported.

Katsav insisted that he hadn't planned to grant a pardon to Amir, and that would have been his recommendation to Israel's next president as well.

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