Update: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has called for a pardon of the Israeli medic who was convicted of manslaughter today in the killing of an incapacitated Palestinian, a story that is generating headlines around the world. Haaretz translates Netanyahu’s statement in part:
“This is a difficult and painful day for all of us – and first and foremost for Elor [Azaria] and his family, for IDF soldiers, for many soldiers and for the parents of our soldiers, and me among them…. We have one army, which is the basis of our existence. The soldiers of the IDF are our sons and daughters, and they need to remain above dispute.”
Netanyahu reportedly does not have the power to pardon; though President Reuven Rivlin does.
Original post:
Sgt. Elor Azaria was convicted today by a military court in Jaffa of manslaughter for the execution of Abdel Fatah al-Sharif as he lay incapacitated in the street in Hebron last March, and there were immediate calls from Israeli political leaders and the public for the 20-year-old soldier to be pardoned. The story was the lead on BBC, and the New York Times and Washington Post also promptly put up the news.
B’Tselem, the human rights organization whose video unleashed the investigation, said the case was the rare exception in which an Israeli soldier was held accountable for a human rights atrocity. There is “routine whitewashing of cases in which security forces kill or injure Palestinians with no accountability,” it said.
Amnesty International reached the same conclusion: The conviction “offers a small glimmer of hope” that others will face accountability “amid the rampant impunity for unlawful killings in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
Israeli Jews are not of that opinion. Haaretz reports calls by Israeli lawmakers for a pardon of the killer. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman termed the verdict harsh, but sought to defuse angry protest. Culture Minister Miri Regev said she’d lead a campaign for his pardon. The BBC quoted two ordinary Israelis today saying that Azaria is a “hero.” One said he was protecting women and children in Hebron, and it is a “scandal” that he is not being supported.
Here’s the original video, shot in Hebron by B’Tselem researcher Imad Abu Shamsiyah, last March 24:
Both the Times and Washington Post stories ignored the human rights groups saying how exceptional this case is and portray the killing an aberration inside the occupation. Ruth Eglash in the Post does not quote any Palestinian on the case. Isabel Kershner in the Times only quoted one at the very end of her story. After the impact of the decision on Israeli Jews has been analyzed every which way, as an afterthought the New York Times gives the Palestinians a single comment.
Ahmad Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, said in a Twitter post that dozens of soldiers and commanders who killed Palestinians should have been convicted. “Fifty years of occupation add up to much more than one Azaria,” Mr. Tibi wrote.
Remember that the victim in this case was a Palestinian in occupied territory. Imagine covering a lynching in the South and leaving the comments of blacks to the very end. This was always a story about occupied Palestine. Ma’an news has a crucial angle the Times and Post ignores:
Emad Abu Shamsiyya, a Palestinian activist who filmed the point-blankshooting of Abd al-Fatah al-Sharif by an Israeli soldier in Hebron last March said he “feared for his life” after the Israeli soldier was found guilty of manslaughter for the killing Wednesday.
Eglash in the Washington Post covered the widespread support for Azaria in the second paragraph of her story:
As the verdict was read, violence broke out among several hundred right-wing protesters who had gathered outside the military court in Tel Aviv to show support for the 20-year-old soldier, Sgt. Elor Azaria.
Kershner downplayed and rationalized the support for Azaria.
Many in Israel, a country where military service is a part of national identity, called for backing up young soldiers sent on dangerous missions. They said that Sergeant Azaria had been in an impossible situation and that the deck had been stacked against him, since an acquittal would have put his commanders in a bad light. . .
Appealing to public sentiment in a country blighted by wars and terrorism, and where most Jewish 18-year-olds are conscripted for up to 32 months of military service, his supporters portrayed him as “everybody’s child.”
Kershner must know that to be true; at least one of her sons has served in the Israeli Defense Forces.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman tried to tamp down the outrage over the verdict:
“This is a harsh verdict,” Liberman said, ”The first thing I ask is for everyone — those who like the judgment more, and those like me who like the verdict much less — we are all committed to respect the legal decision and to exercise restraint despite the harsh verdict”.
Liberman promised that the defense apparatus would help the soldier and his family in every way possible. “I call on public figures to stop attacking the defense system, the army, and the Chief of Staff. The calls that I heard in last half hour are fundamentally wrong. The Chief of Staff is the commander of the army, day and night, 24 hours a day, seven days a week”.
Arutz Sheva reports that Culture Minister Miri Regev says the verdict tells people that soldiers are “alone in the field.”
“I intend to act for granting amnesty to the soldier Elor Azariya. This is no way to treat one of our soldiers. It was a trial that never should have started. An incident that took place in combat where a terrorist was killed by a soldier should not be judged as a criminal act. If Elor Azariya violated procedures, he should have been called before a disciplinary hearing with the commander of the brigade.
“Unfortunately, the main court in this case was a field court, where commentators and politicians judged Elor before the military investigation of the incident ended. This conduct transmits the message to soldiers who enlist in the army: you are alone in the field. The soldiers have complex challenges in carrying out their operations. A move was committed here that abandons a soldier. I want to strengthen Elor and his family who are experiencing hard times.”
More from Amnesty International:
“Today’s conviction of a member of the Israeli forces is a rare occurrence in a country with a long record of using excessive and unwarranted force, and where soldiers who may have committed crimes under international law very seldom face prosecution,” said Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
Mainstream American readers are sure to be surprised by the viciousness on the part of Israeli society in its fond support of a killer who shot a man lying wounded on the ground, after he had allegedly attacked an occupying soldier with a knife. The mainstream has long kept this face of Israel hidden from Americans. Maybe we will finally see the unvarnished views of rightwing Israelis?
Yakov Hirsch predicted this verdict and the split in Israeli political culture long ago.
This man will most probably (with support from Israeli leaders and public) get off very soon, and his sentence commuted, before he is back with his buddies on the streets. He went against the rules of his own military outfit, and viciously killed a “suspect” who was lying injured on the ground, and no threat to anyone around. The charges were of a lesser kind, and he would not have been taken to court had some smart person taken a video of a brutal assassination, by a soldier wearing the uniform of his country, and taking the law into his hands, while his fellow soldiers do NOTHING. Perhaps they have seen this brutality many times before.
From Peter Beaumont:
“Elor Azaria: the Israeli soldier who exposed the country’s faultlines
The case of the ‘Hebron shooter’ who killed a wounded Palestinian attacker has elicited both sympathy and condemnation
…His supporters relentlessly played up the image of Azaria, who was often pictured in court with his mother’s arms around him, not just as a son but as a young and immature soldier who could have been any Israeli’s child.
It was a representation rejected by the Israeli army’s chief of staff, Gadi Eisenkot, speaking at a conference the day before the verdict.
“An 18-year-old man serving in the army is not ‘everyone’s child’,” Eisenkot commented sharply. “He is a fighter, a soldier, who must dedicate his life to carry out the tasks we give him. We cannot be confused about this.”
The three-judge military panel also rejected the idea. “One cannot use this type of force, even if we’re talking about an enemy’s life,” said the presiding judge Maya Heller, reiterating a key principle of human rights law in conflict.
Instead, the judgment made clear Azaria was a serial liar who changed his stories about the circumstances of the killing on multiple occasions. His defence team – as the judges pointed out – were little better in arranging their case.
So confident were they that he would be viewed as the victim, they did not even bother squaring the many glaring and impossible contradictions in their defence, which were pulled apart in the judgment. …
Human rights groups were quick to point out that the focus on Azaria masked a wider problem of impunity.
Welcoming the verdict, Sari Bashi, the Israel advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said: “Today’s conviction is a positive step toward reining in excessive use of force by Israeli soldiers against Palestinians.”
Amnesty said the conviction offered “a glimmer of hope that soldiers who commit unlawful killings may no longer go unpunished”.
But despite the conviction, other questions have not been addressed: why, for instance, was no medical aid given to the badly wounded Abdel Fattal al-Sharif?
Indeed, why did no medical personnel approach the wounded and incapacitated Sharif apart from Azaria, a military medic, whose duty should have been to deliver aid but who instead had in mind to kill him?”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/04/elor-azaria-israeli-soldier-exposed-faultlines
Thanks to Beaumont for his last paragraph and burning question…
Here’s more:
“…As the verdict was read out, Azaria’s mother shouted at the panel of judges: “You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Other members of Azaria’s family clapped as the decision was delivered, shouting: “Our hero!”
Outside the court there were clashes between Azaria’s supporters – some notorious fans of Beitar football club – and the police. Some supporters chanted death threats against the Israeli army chief, Gadi Eizenkot, insinuating he would face the same fate as Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister killed 20 years ago by an ultranationalist Israeli.
Sharif’s father welcomed the verdict. “For me, a just verdict will be one that is similar to the verdicts our sons (in Israeli prisons) get,” Yusri al-Sharif said. “[A] life sentence … But Israel is trying its own son, so there is a possibility it will be lenient.”…”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/04/israeli-soldier-guilty-manslaughter-shooting-palestinian-elor-azaria-abdel-fattah-al-sharif
Sadly, yet predictably, executed Palestinian Abd al-Fatah al-Sharif is still referred to as a “terrorist” in the coverage that I have read.
All I know is that one IOF “serial liar” and cold- blooded executioner was finally ‘convicted’ and that there are many in Israel that are angry and threatening at even this small measure of justice.
Too bad US papers/media are still peddling lies and bs.
oh wow. YH must be a psychic. Such a hard prediction to imagine a split reaction to the killing of somebody who was more then just “alleged” to have carried out an attempted murder of another israeli soldier MW, pw, and (((()))) can downplay that all they want to their peanut gallery but the facts are that had the palestinian not tried to knife an israeli he wouldn’t have been lying on the ground.
Personally, I don’t see this verdict setting any precedents and as with most trials surrounded by the hysterical and rabid foreign press-it will be blown up until its over engorged and then burst into shreds of nothing. I think he may absolutely be guilty of conduct (manslaughter)unbefitting an idf soldier. And YH-it has nothing to do with your grand theory of Israeli culture. Take the same incident in the US and have a local policeman shooting a terror suspect (e.g. -somebody who just shot up a marine recruiting station) dead you will definitely have a large portion of americans supporting law enforcement.
And of course it is no surprise that in phils mind this incident is foolishly comparable to a pre-70s era lynching of an american black a la ‘strange fruit’ style. This case is so far from a typical southern US lynching its ridiculous. He is always stretching credulity to try and make a point.
As a counterpoint-were the four palestinians who killed, chopped up, sexually mutilated and/or eviscerated an israeli soldier they captured and then threw his remains out a second story window punished? Were palestinians by and large supportive or were they split on the ‘heroic’ nature of that act where they displayed their blood soaked palms to the world to see. did they name a plaza . playground or park after him? get real. is there bad blood? there is bad blood and YH-the rules of poker don’t really apply . predicting the israeli public will be split is about as skilled as predicting the democrats in the Us will try and stymie trump in his first year in office
and @k
i agree-the man who filmed this incident-while not capturing what led up to it was right in filming it and turning it over at risk to his own personal well being. it matters not wether he is arab or jew. this is one video that has proven to not be susceptible to manipulation, editing and or alternative explanations. it is what it is. it proves only that some israelis treat (or approve of) those who kill their incapacitated enemies as ‘heroes’ while others do not. Not very different then palestinians who treat the murderers of sleeping 13yr old girls or make jokes about 2 parents shot in their car with their baby children watching in the back seat as ‘martyrs’ while others thought it horrendous.
Gideon Levy:
“… Take a good look at the trial of soldier Elor Azaria: That’s what death throes look like. That’s what the death throes of good government and the last spasms of a healthy society look like. That’s what the façade of equality before the law —(what would have happened had Azaria been Palestinian?) — looks like when most of the masks have already been torn off, including the cloak of shame. That’s what a democracy looks like when it thought it could continue to exist undisturbed even as a brutal military tyranny existed in its backyard. That’s what an occupation army looks like when it still insists on a few religious rituals of law and values.
It’s all racing in the same direction, and the runaway gallop has spurred a last-ditch effort to wrap it in a guise of fairness, in the form of the Azaria trial or the evacuation of the Amona outpost, for instance. When Moshe Ya’alon and Gadi Eisenkot, two military commanders responsible for war crimes and occupation, have become the guardians of law and morality in Israel, the situation is beyond despair.
It’s worth taking a good look at them: Soon they, too, will no longer be here. Their places will be taken by people who are even worse. Yesterday, the masses threatened: “Gadi, Gadi, beware, Rabin is looking for a companion.”
Perhaps we’ll yet miss Eisenkot. It’s hard to believe, but he too, is already an endangered species. Even television anchor Dany Cushmaro was a target for the rabble yesterday. How ridiculous.
In court, a military judge read out a detailed, reasoned verdict, self-evident and unavoidable, and it was completely disconnected from what was happening outside. Inside the courthouse, the defendant was greeted with applause, while the broadcasters vied with each other over who could show more compassion and empathy for him (for what, exactly?). And outside, hundreds of demonstrators were threatening to storm the court, the army and the media, as the politicians’ chorus of incitement egged them on.
The ministers of culture, education and the interior are already pardoning Azaria. Zionist Union MK Shelly Yacimovich (!) has already joined them. Norms are being inverted one after the other: A person convicted of manslaughter is a hero; the chief of staff of the occupation army is a teacher of morality; cabinet ministers are subverting the justice system and the military. And the opposition is nonexistent.
What a long road Israel has traveled since the pardon granted to Azaria’s predecessors, the perpetrators of the Bus 300 attack, back in 1984 when two Palestinians who had hijacked a bus, were captured alive by the Shin Bet security service, and later put to death. At least they didn’t become heroes. Perhaps they even felt a moment of shame over their actions.
It’s been 13 years since the last time an Israel Defense Forces soldier was convicted of committing manslaughter during operational activity, and that time, it was a Bedouin soldier, who spent six years in prison solely due to international pressure (he killed a British photographer). Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge in Gaza, with their hundreds of unnecessary dead, ended without any convictions. Executions of girls with scissors and boys with knives also went by without anyone being put on trial, on Eisenkot’s watch.
“Are there judges in IDF headquarters?” Virtually none. Azaria wasn’t the first executioner, and he also won’t be the last.
It’s good that he was convicted. If he is given a fitting sentence, perhaps this will prevent a few other criminal killings. But there’s nothing to get excited about. The cameras of B’Tselem — that organization of traitors and liars — forced the IDF to put him on trial. The evidence compelled the court…
And this was the swan song. There will be no more Azaria trials. The politicians and the masses won’t let it happen.
The root of it all is hatred of Arabs. Azaria is virtually a national hero for one reason only: He killed an Arab (the lines between Arabs and terrorists are blurred in Israel). He did what many people would have wanted to do themselves and what many more think he should have done.
This was a murder born of pity: the self-pity of the occupier over the bitterness of his fate. How wretched is the soldier Azaria, who was forced to stand at a checkpoint in Hebron. How wretched are his commanders, who sent him there. How wretched is Israel, which is forced to erect checkpoints in the very heart of a Palestinian city and strangle its residents. But for this, nobody has been put on trial.
Azaria is neither a hero nor a victim. He’s a criminal. But above him are even bigger criminals.”
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.763045
I cannot comprehend why he was found to be guilty of “manslaughter”, and not of murder.
What were the mitigating circumstances to reduce the charge??!!