Kempler video

The Kempler video is a film made by Roni Kempler while standing initially at the crime scene at the northeast side of the Tel Aviv City Hall and later on the roof of the "Gan Ha'ir"-mall overlooking the crime scene before and during the assassination of Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995.

The filmmaker was Roni Kempler, by profession an accountant with the office of the State Comptroller of Israel who was also an amateur photographer that frequently filmed events with his handheld video camera looking for special angles. It has been described as "essentially the only video documentation of the killing."

The Kempler video shows Yigal Amir lounging about or sitting on a cement planter situated at the bottom of the stairs that officials, participating in the rally in support of Yitzhak Rabin's policies, would pass by on their way back to their cars. At one point, Shimon Peres, the Foreign Minister, passed by Amir, greeting supporters. The video then shows Rabin descending a stairway and walking towards his car. Amir can be seen reaching for his gun, circling behind the Prime Minister and extending his arm, followed by flash and three bursts. The last image is of Rabin disappearing under a pile of security men to screams of horrified onlookers, after which the photographer stopped filming and hit the ground.

Immediately after the assassination Kempler submitted the video to the Shamgar National Inquiry Commission, which was tasked with researching the security failures. Forty-five days after the Rabin assassination and after the Shamgar commission granted permission to release the video to the public, the Israeli TV showed the non-static parts of this video with commentary. The public was shocked by the ease of access that the murderer had and by the security gaps. In his sole television appearance the night his video was broadcast, Kempler reflected on the thoughts and feelings that he experienced during and after taking the video.

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Wikipedia