Last month, June 6th to be exact, marked the anniversary of the assassination of New York Senator and Presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy. It has been 43 years.
Bobby Kennedy was shot by a 24-year-old Palestinian, Sirhan Sirhan, three times in the face with a .22-caliber rifle. He died 26 hours later in the hospital. Sirhan said his was a political motivation protesting Senator Kennedy’s support for Israel during the Six-Day War. The same day he passed away, the Los Angeles Times reported the story disclosing the Palestinian’s motives writing:
“When the Jordanian nationalist, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, allegedly shot Kennedy, ostensibly because of the senator’s advocacy of U.S. support for Israel, the crime with which he was charged was in essence another manifestation of the centuries-old hatred between Arab and Jew.”
An original conviction resulting in the death penalty was eventually changed to life imprisonment. Today, Sirhan is confined at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. He lives in a cell in solitary confinement.
Read some of Senator Kennedy’s British Mandate era reporting from Palestine for the Boston Post.. here.
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