An Israeli court on Tuesday sentenced Elor Azaria to 18 months in prison, one-year probation and a demotion of his military rank, a month after the Israeli soldier was found guilty of manslaughter.
Azaria shot and killed Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif in March after al-Sharif had already been shot and injured following an alleged attempted stabbing attack in Hebron.
Following the court’s sentencing, Azaria’s defense vowed to appeal the ruling, while several high-ranking Israeli politicians called for a pardon in his case.
The main evidence in the case was footage caught on camera by Imad Abu Shamsiya, a Palestinian resident of Hebron who had been provided a camera by Human Rights Defenders specifically to document instances such as the shooting and other human rights violations in Hebron.
Abu Shamsiya told Mondoweiss he is grateful he was around to film the incident, because without the camera footage he feels certain Azaria would never have been taken to court, let alone serve time in prison.
“If there was no one filming that day then this crime, just like other crimes like it that happen against Palestinians on a daily basis, would go unnoticed,” Abu Shamsiya said. “I am so grateful for the camera, and so grateful I was in the right place at the right time.”
While Shamsiya is happy the world got to see what happened on that day in March, he does not feel like justice was served.
“There is no justice for the family,” Abu Shamsiya said. “They lost a member of their family in a very brutal way, this 18-month sentence is not justice for the family, for the Palestinian people or our nation — no one got justice from this.”
Sahar Francis, the director of Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ rights NGO, criticized the sentencing, telling Mondoweiss that an 18-month sentence for an “extrajudicial execution” of a Palestinian “brings to light the policy of impunity and lack of accountability in a system of protracted Israeli military occupation.”
“The period of sentencing is similar to sentencing routinely given to Palestinians for ‘membership in an illegal organization’ – with all Palestinian political parties deemed illegal through various military orders,” Francis said. “The message this sends to other soldiers and police officers who extrajudicially execute Palestinians is that their actions will not be seriously accounted for and that impunity will persist.”
According to Israeli daily Haaretz, judges said Azaria acted with the intent to kill, outside of Israeli military protocol, which requires a threat to life before live fire can be used. The judge also said the severity of the shooting and backlash it caused to the Israeli military was mitigated since the shooting happened during an active combat situation.
Meanwhile, the Israeli right has lauded Azaria as a hero who killed a Palestinian terrorist, attacking the Israeli military and the Israeli justice system for allowing the case to go forward, while calling for Azaria’s pardon.
After Azaria was found guilty of manslaughter January, Ido Zelkovitz, head of the Middle East studies department at Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel and senior researcher at the University of Haifa told Mondoweiss that both sides of the Israeli political spectrum agreed on one thing — Azaria shot a terrorists in their eyes — which in the end, he said would indeed lead to a pardon after Azaria serves a small part of his sentence.
“Even if he was unarmed and he couldn’t put anyone in danger, the common idea among all the Israeli camps is that Azaria shot a terrorist and there is no debate about that question — it is a mutual understanding. That is why in the future the pardon will be accepted,” Zelkovitz said.
Abu Shamsiya agreed, telling Mondoweiss that he would be shocked if Azaria was actually made to serve his full sentence.
“Of course he won’t be made to serve his full sentence — the sentence is a joke, not justice, it’s 18 months in prison for murder,” Abu Shamsiya said. “Not only do I doubt he will even serve a full prison sentence, I doubt he will be put on any kind of probation or be demoted in the military.”
“This case shows us the injustice of the Israeli government,” he added. “This was just a show for the world to see because this execution was filmed, so the government felt it had to do something.”
1- “thank g-d for my camera……” . As if 90% of Palestinians don’t have smart phones with extremely proficient cameras with the ability to film anything they encounter during any day of the week. The point being Shamsya was hired by an ngo to specifically go around shooting footage of incidents that would either expose illegal behavior of IDF, catch them acting in ways which don’t conform to military law and/ or code and especially to capture an explosive event that would capture the attention of the circus-like msm bringing international attention and scrutiny on the IDF and the nation.
. As for approval of Shamsiyas actions? ,i see nothing he did which could be interpreted as illegal. The no he worked for, less so. And..
2) Palestinians have access to a very advanced network for Wi-Fi and cellular. Probably 90% of Palestinians between 15 and 65 have smart phones with cameras. If incidents like this were more common there are enough cameras around to capture daily life.
I saw a video posted the other day (it was a pro-israel Zionist journalist/blogger but there was no reason to assume it was illegitimate any more then on-the-spot Palestinian videos. Was it hasbara? Not really. But even if it was so what)
Anyway, the point was…..he was interviewing Palestinians in the street at ramallah checkpoint asking how long it took,[10 mins average, more on holidays] and whether the soldiers “humiliated” them or abused then in anyway.(again, “no.” . And one man said, “i’m old enough to be their father, of course they will treat me with respect” Polite, business like, etc etc. And there is no denying that this can quickly change depending on what pops up on computer or if there is any unusual disagreements)
Then… (American) blogger split screen with cars and people crossing at ramallah and cars/people crossing from tijuana into USA. The times were the same, 17:00 Thursday. It took the Americans almost 15, sometimes 20mins to pass thru with spot checks, ID inspection, dogs etc.
And those humiliators and oppressors at ramallah into Israel ?. 3 minutes average per person or car. A little move on holidays.
But, as long as there are paid agents of specific NGOs furnished with ‘camera’s (as if everybody doesn’t already have phone cams) they can wait for days or weeks until there is trouble, film it and present it like it’s every day. That’s Palestinian hasbara, btw
@DaBakr
Quite a mouthful about the actions of Azaria being caught on camera but not a word about the killing itself. Presumably you believe that it was entirely justified,moral and totally legal to walk over to a prostrate ,unarmed ,wounded human being and casually put a bullet in his head. Thank f…. I don`t have someone like you as a neighbour. The only thing worse perhaps would be to have the smirking,revolting charlie november uniform tango in question living alongside. Still the good news is probably that pardon or no pardon he will never get to pollute Europe dual citizenship or not given the big target he now probably has on his back.
Trump,s inspiration fro “Last Night in Sweden ” ,filmed himself throwing stones at Palestinians.
“Later he travels to the village of Qalandiyah and films Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. After Horowitz explains that one of the rocks hit a Palestinian child he concludes: “Time to get stupid.” In the film’s closing shots, the director is seen shouting profanities at the Palestinians on a hill, and throwing rocks at them. Triumphant rock music blares on the sound track.
read more at , (no paywall).
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.773193
heaven help Americans , Trump gets his , “fair and balanced ” security briefings from Fox News who get their their input from zionist morons like Ami Horowitz.
I remember in school when the English teacher would show the class a picture and ask us to write an essay on what we see. All of us who have read this article have our own thoughts on what we see in the picture of Azaria with his family and supporters.
Looking at his family helps me to understand what made this young soldier. I see nothing remotely like empathy or human kindness. On the contrary I see only coarseness, cruelty and stupidity.
The most remarkable thing about all this to me was what happened in the seconds leading up to the shot being fired. I saw an officer summons Azaria from way back, gives instructions to him, pushes on his rifle barrel and Azaria immediately steps forward a couple steps and fired.
What do I not see?