Robert F. Kennedy's 1948 visit to Palestine

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Robert F. Kennedy visited the British Mandate of Palestine in 1948, one month before Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Twenty-two years old at the time, he was reporting on the tense situation in the region for The Boston Post. During his stay, he grew to admire the Jewish inhabitants of the area.[1] He later became a strong supporter of Israel; this was later cited as Sirhan Sirhan's alleged motivation for assassinating him on the first anniversary of the start of the Six-Day War on June 5, 1968.[2][3] Sirhan happened to see a documentary about Kennedy in Palestine in 1948. Later in his murder trial, Sirhan Sirhan testified: "I hoped he will win Presidency until that moment. But when I saw, heard, he was supporting Israel, sir, not in 1968, but he was supporting, it from all the way from its inception in 1948, sir ..."[4][5][6] Author Robert Blair Kaiser points out a discrepancy in the timing of Sirhan's decision. In Sirhan's diary, the entry in which he decided to kill Robert Kennedy was made on May 18. The documentary in question was first shown on TV in the Los Angeles area on May 20. When asked to explain, Sirhan said that he did not recall writing the journal.[7]

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  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbc080605 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference jp080404 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ O'Sullivan 2008: 103
  5. ^ Davis 1992: 658
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference #The Telegraph was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ O'Sullivan 2008: 104