Rabin, the Last Day Page #8

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or those whom the secret service

said shouldn't be there

should be removed.

Thank you.

Thank you. Many thanks.

What am I supposed to do?

- How do you feel?

- I don't know.

I feel like -

I don't know

whether to laugh or cry.

How do you feel about it?

Damti, Menachem.

ID number 102 714 3.

My job is...

driver for the prime minister.

Are you the only driver?

Do you take turns?

The prime minister generally has

two drivers.

We decide when to switch.

Please describe your actions

until the prime minister arrived.

I went to the car

and waited in the car.

As I was waiting in the car,

Shimon Peres, who was foreign minister

at the time, came down

and asked me,

When is the prime minister coming?

I answered,

He'll be here in a few seconds.

He said, I'll wait.

He waited.

Then he said, Well, I'm leaving.

I stood by the door.

Later the prime minister came down.

I mean, he came down -

He was a foot or two

from my door,

and Mrs. Rabin was behind him.

Now, I was about

to open the door for Mrs. Rabin,

not for the prime minister,

because the prime minister

used the other door.

I saw his wife behind him.

I opened the door.

When the prime minister

reached my door,

about...

a foot or two from the door,

and I was standing at an angle...

the assassin came from this direction...

and I heard a bang.

I turned quickly

and saw him shooting

and shouting,

Blanks, blanks.

Then I got into the car...

and as I got into the car -

I mean, I was in the car,

and the head of security, Yoram,

put him in

and said, Drive.

Was your blue light flashing?

In the car?

Yes, in the car.

It's always in the car. Yes.

Now, I don't know if it was on.

I got into the car

and turned on the siren and sped away.

I don't know if the light was flashing

but I know the siren was on.

I was in no state

to play with the buttons so I -

I drove straight to the hospital.

Were you told in advance

which route to take

to the hospital in an emergency?

Usually, Your Honor,

they always tell me.

For some reason they forgot to.

They didn't give me

an escape route.

Who usually tells you?

The commander,

the head of the team

and the whole crew,

if it's a big event like that.

What happened at the hospital?

Was he admitted immediately?

No one was expecting me

at the hospital.

When I got to the hospital

I parked the car at the entrance,

got out quickly.

There was a hospital

security guard there,

and I shouted to him hysterically,

Please bring a stretcher!

He did so very quickly.

He brought the stretcher,

I took the prime minister by the back,

Yoram took him by the head,

and I asked the policeman

to help us from behind.

We put him on the stretcher

and ran to the trauma unit.

How long was the drive

from Kings Square to the hospital?

I'd estimate...

a minute

or a minute and a half,

with the delay,

with the policeman and everything.

I'd say it took a minute and a half.

According to the hospital's files

the prime minister arrived

at the hospital at 9:55 PM,

that is, eight minutes

after the shooting,

500 meters away.

It seemed like a minute

and a half to me.

Thank you.

On November 4, 1995,

I was the prime minister's

personal bodyguard.

There were seven guards

on the team.

All in all there were 20 guards

at the incident.

Please speak up.

I was the team leader.

I walked next to him.

Into the microphone, please.

There was one man in front,

one in back, theoretically,

and another joined us

on the left.

How did you regroup

after the rally?

We went down the stairs toward the crowd

with the crowd on our right.

I thought the idea was

to shake hands with the crowd

through the barrier

when suddenly,

out of the blue,

he turned left toward the car.

At that point

I was behind the prime minister.

I wasn't next to him.

How far away were you?

About a foot and a half away.

Continue.

When we turn left toward the car

and we were standing

at the rear door,

I heard a gunshot

from behind and to the left.

I wrapped my arms

around the prime minister

and started to pull him down.

I didn't see the gunman.

I realized he misfired

or he was overpowered.

But that wasn't my concern.

The PM was still alive after the shooting.

Not only was he alive,

he helped me up.

And I naively thought

that your job was

to protect the prime minister...

even to take a bullet for him,

and certainly to kill the assassin.

Please continue.

At that point

we leapt into the car.

In retrospect

I'm surprised that a man his age

was able to leap like that.

We leapt into the car

with the PM in the backseat

and me between the seats.

His legs stuck out a bit

so I pulled in his feet

and told Damti to drive.

At the police station

on the night of the assassination,

on November 5...

at 1:
07 AM...

you said,

I picked the prime minister up

and pushed him into the car.

Right?

At Yigal Amir's trial

you gave a different testimony

after the shooting.

And I quote.

You said,

I spoke to the prime minister.

I grabbed his shoulders.

I told him,

'You listen to me and only me.'

You shouted that.

You said,

according to our documents,

'Listen to me and only me.'

I repeated that a number of times.

I continue to quote you.

There's a part that I don't remember,

then I found us

on top of each other in the car.

There are many contradictions

in your testimony.

I covered him with my arms

from the right.

The assassin came from the left.

Do you think the decision

to take the prime minister

to the hospital was correct?

I think so.

In that situation the casualty should be

evacuated as soon as possible.

What would've happened

if they'd used the evacuation corridors

and the route the driver took

had been clearer?

I can't answer that.

The fact that the prime minister

arrived at the hospital dead

and we managed to restore his heartbeat

raises the question:

What would've happened

if he'd arrived two minutes earlier?

That question can't be answered.

It's clear that his wound was severe

and he wouldn't have survived it,

but no one can answer that question.

Please describe in detail

the wounds that he sustained

when he arrived.

A bullet wound

next to the spinal column

and a wound to the spinal column.

At that point we couldn't diagnose

the wound to the spinal column itself.

Additional wounds

from a knife or a regular bullet,

a hole in his back that crushed

his spleen and left lung,

passed next to his heart

and cut the aorta

which caused bleeding.

That's what usually happens

with this kind of wound,

but he didn't -

he didn't die from the bleeding.

The mechanism that caused him

to lose consciousness

and his actual death

was pneumothorax,

abnormal amount of air in the chest.

When we breathe,

air enters our lungs.

Due to the wound

the air entered the space

between the lung and the chest

creating pressure,

a valve effect.

The more he breathed,

the greater the pressure.

A drain was inserted

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