TELAVIV:(WN)-An Israeli military court
sentenced a soldier Tuesday to 18 months in prison for the deadly shooting of a
Palestinian attacker who lay wounded on the ground, capping a nearly yearlong
saga that has deeply divided the country.
The sentence, which included a year's
probation and a demotion in rank, was lighter than expected. Prosecutors had
asked for a prison term of three to five years. Palestinians dismissed the
sentence as a "joke." Sgt. Elor Azaria, 20, is to start serving his
term on March 5; politicians immediately called for him to be pardoned.
"Even if he erred, Elor should not sit
in prison. We will all pay the price," said Education Minister Naftali
Bennett, leader of the nationalist Jewish Home Party and an early supporter of
the soldier.
A military tribunal sentenced an Israeli
soldier to 18 months in prison on Tuesday in the killing of a disarmed and
wounded Palestinian attacker, noting that the army medic showed no remorse for
pulling the trigger, long after the attacker lunged at troops with a knife.
It was a deeply divisive punishment for an
army sergeant whom many Israelis hailed as a hero for “neutralizing a
terrorist.” The months-long trial of Sgt. Elor Azaria was a rare prosecution of
an Israeli soldier serving in the almost 50-year military occupation of the
West Bank. Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter by the court in January.
Many Israelis said the only reason Azaria
stood trial at all was the fact that the fatal shot was clearly captured on
video by a Palestinian volunteer for an Israeli human rights group. Naftali
Bennett, Israel’s education minister and the leader of pro-settler party Jewish
Home, called for an immediate pardon by Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin. “He
cannot go to jail, or we will all pay the price,” Bennett said.
Israel’s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman,
said the court should be respected but added: “On the one hand there is an
excellent soldier, on the other a terrorist who came to kill Jews, and we need
to take both of these into account.” The
central fact of the case is not in dispute.
In March 2016, Azaria fired a single bullet
at close range into the skull of a Palestinian assailant as he lay wounded sprawled
on his back on a street in Hebron in the West Bank minutes after slashing at
soldiers with a knife and wounding one. Azaria’s defense argued he feared that
the suspect, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, might have been concealing an explosive
device under his jacket.
On the video, ambulance drivers from the
Jewish settlement and others could be heard shouting that the Palestinian was still
a danger even as Israeli military officers casually milled about, a few yards
from the supine assailant.
The incident took place near a military
checkpoint in Hebron, where 850 hard-line Jewish settlers, protected by 650
Israeli soldiers, live among 200,000 Palestinians. Jews and Muslims share a
religious shrine in Hebron and a mosque and a synagogue where the faithful
believe Abraham and the patriarchs of the faiths are buried.
It is one of the tensest places in the West
Bank. Palestinians want the land for a future state. The Jewish settlers
believe that the land was given to them by God. At the close of Azaria’s trial
in January, the military judges dismissed Azaria’s claim that he feared for his
safety. “We found there was no room to
accept his arguments,” said chief army judge Maya Heller, reading the decision
by the three-judge panel.
“His motive for shooting was that he felt the
terrorist deserved to die,” she said. In the last two years, there have been dozens
of cases of Israeli forces, including top commanders and private security
guards, shooting Palestinian assailants and suspects at checkpoints and in
riots. Many of the incidents have been
condemned by human rights groups and Palestinians. Few have been the subject of
open investigations. None were prosecuted.
The Azaria case exposed the deep schisms in
Israeli society, where many celebrated the 20-year-old sergeant as a national
hero, or at worst a soldier who made a mistake. Many say he should have been
disciplined but never dragged into a courtroom.
The Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv
University released a survey last year of Jewish Israelis that found 47 percent
support killing on the spot a terrorist who attacked Jews “even if he has been
captured and clearly does not pose a threat.”
Israel’s military leaders said that
discipline and “purity of arms” were core values for the army and pressed for a
court hearing. Other retired officers said that Azaria was being railroaded and
that plenty of Palestinian terrorists get killed.
Many ordinary Israelis took to calling Azaria
“everyone’s son.” In Israel, military service is mandatory for most Jewish
citizens, and the parents of soldiers are more involved than ever in making
sure their teenage sons and daughters are well treated by the military.
During the trial, tensions spiked so high
that military prosecutors and the three-judge panel received threats and
required extra security. The sentencing was moved from a courthouse in Tel
Aviv’s Jaffa neighborhood to Israel’s version of the Pentagon, called the
Kirya. Outside, a few hundred supporters of the Azaria family gathered, as
leaders with bullhorns condemned the media, the court and the military as
“left-wingers.”
Azaria entered the courtroom smiling, to
applause from friends and family. Before the judges spoke, Charly Azaria, the
soldier’s father and a retired veteran police officer, told supporters not to
disrupt the proceedings. “None of us have any expectations. We shall accept the
sentence whatever it may be,” he said.
The chief military judge announced the
sentence of 18 months. The maximum for manslaughter is 20 years. Army
prosecutors had initially recommended three to five years. Azaria’s defense
team argued he should be allowed to return to his family with time served.
The family showed no emotion at first. Later
they sang the Israeli national anthem. The top army judge, Maya Heller, said
the court took mitigating factors into consideration, saying the incident took
place “in hostile territory.” “We took note of the harm suffered by his
family,” Heller said, but added Azaria had not expressed remorse for his
actions.
Ester Shaked, one of the protesters outside
the court, said: “The way the army is treating him is evil. I’m very shocked by
this case. It wouldn’t happen in any other country. These terrorists came to
kill us, and he protected us.”
Daniel, a teenager from a nearby high school
whose teacher asked that his last name not be used, warned: “We won’t go to the
army. We don’t think he’s guilty. This country is crazy for seeing him as
guilty.”The demonstrators also turned their anger toward Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Lieberman, the defense minister, who they said had lied
to them and abandoned the soldiers.
Israel’s minister of culture and sport, Miri
Regev, called the sentence “difficult” and said, “This is a sad day.” “Elor
should not have to sit one day in jail in addition to what he has already
endured,” Regev said.
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