TEL AVIV, Israel - Even as guards hauled him away to a life behind bars, convicted assassin Yigal Amir showed no remorse about gunning down Israel's prime minister.

The 25-year-old former law student told the Tel Aviv court in his final statement yesterday that Rabin had to be killed because his efforts to make peace by giving up land to the Arabs were a calamity for the Jews.

''Everything I did, I did for God, for the Torah of Israel, the people of Israel and the land of Israel,'' Amir said. He dismissed the three-month proceedings as a show trial and told Judge Edmond Levy: ''May God help you.''

It was a typical proclamation by the determined young man who shocked the world and exposed the deep rifts in Israel by walking up to Rabin, reaching between security men and shooting him twice in the back with hollow-point bullets on Nov. 4.

The three-judge panel convicted Amir and ordered the maximum sentence - life in prison for murdering Rabin, as well as six years for wounding his bodyguard.

Parole seems out of the question for the slightly built defendant, who throughout the trial exasperated his judge and many Israelis with his apparent indifference and unrepentant attitude.

Looking at his sister Hadas at his sentencing, Amir pointed upwards, as if to suggest that everything was in God's hands.

His black curly hair covered by a black skullcap, Amir yawned as Levy described him as a ''wild growth'' and suggested Israel must reevaluate an educational system that was failing to instill sufficient values.

Levy noted Amir is highly intelligent - his lawyers say tests placed his IQ at 144, far above average.