Yahoo – AFP,
Joe Dyke, January 4, 2017
 |
| Israeli soldier Elor Azaria (C) had been on trial for manslaughter in a military court, with right-wing politicians defending him despite top army brass harshly condemning the killing (AFP Photo/Heidi Levine) |
Tel Aviv
(AFP) - A soldier who shot dead a wounded Palestinian assailant as he lay on
the ground posing no apparent threat was convicted of manslaughter Wednesday
after a trial that deeply divided Israel.
Elor Azaria
had been on trial in a military court since May, with right-wing politicians
defending him despite top army brass harshly condemning his actions.
He now
faces up to 20 years in prison.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the ruling that he favoured a pardon for
the 20-year-old French-Israeli sergeant.
"This
has been a hard and painful day for us all -- first and foremost for Elor and
his family," Netanyahu wrote on Facebook.
"I
support giving a pardon to Elor Azaria."
Netanyahu
made waves before the trial even began, by calling Azaria's father to express
his sympathy.
Earlier
Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin's office issued a statement advising that
any talk of a pardon was premature.
It said an
application could only be made after the judicial process had run its course.
No date has
yet been announced for sentencing, and Azaria could then appeal.
Judge Colonel
Maya Heller spent more than two and a half hours reading out the court decision
Wednesday, sharply criticising the arguments of Azaria's lawyers.
On behalf
of the three-judge panel, Heller said there was no reason for Azaria to open
fire since the Palestinian was posing no threat.
She called
his testimony "evolving and evasive".
"His
motive for shooting was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die," she
said.
Azaria had
entered the courtroom smiling, applauded by family and supporters.
But he
looked shaken as the judge spoke, and after the verdict his mother yelled:
"You should be ashamed of yourselves."
 |
Israeli
women protest outside the defence ministry in Tel Aviv on January 4, 2017,
in
support of Israeli soldier Elor Azaria, who shot dead a wounded Palestinian
assailant (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)
|
Protests
and scuffles
Outside
Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the court announced the
verdict, dozens of Azaria supporters scuffled with police.
Shabtay Oz,
a retired policeman carrying a large Israeli flag and protesting peacefully,
said he never imagined himself joining a demonstration.
"But
when I saw a soldier in cuffs after he shot a terrorist," he said, slapping
his hands together, "that was the point of no return."
Right-wing
leaders have called for him to be pardoned in an extraordinary public rift
between politicians and the military.
Before he
became defence minister in May, Avigdor Lieberman was among those showing
strong support for Azaria, including attending one of his court appearances.
He has
since backed away from his earlier stance, and after Wednesday's verdict said
he disagreed with the decision but that it must be respected.
The March
24 shooting in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron was caught on video and
spread widely online.
It showed
Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another
Palestinian after stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier minutes earlier, according
to the army.
Azaria then
shoots him again in the head without any apparent provocation.
His lawyers
argued the soldier may have thought the Palestinian was wearing explosives, but
others said he had already been checked for a suicide belt and no one in the
video appears to be acting with caution toward him.
The
Palestinian's father told reporters in Hebron after the verdict that Azaria
should be sentenced to life.
"For
me, a just verdict will be one that is similar to the verdicts our sons (in
Israeli prisons) get," Yusri al-Sharif said.
 |
Yusri
al-Sharif (L), Abdul Fatah al-Sharif's father, told reporters that Azaria
should be sentenced to life (AFP Photo/Hazem Bader)
|
Polarised
public
The video
was filmed by a Palestinian volunteer for Israeli rights group B'Tselem, which
accused the security forces of "routine whitewashing" in a statement
after the verdict.
"The
fact that one soldier was convicted today does not exonerate the Israeli
military law enforcement system from its routine whitewashing of cases in which
security forces kill or injure Palestinians with no accountability,"
B'Tselem said.
The case
galvanised the Israeli public, and television and radio stations interrupted
their broadcasts to carry live coverage of the verdict.
It had been
portrayed by some as a test of whether Israel's military could prosecute one of
its own, though many Palestinians dismissed it, arguing Azaria was only put on
trial because of the video.
The
military has said it began investigating before the release of the video.
The last
time an Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter was in 2005, Israeli
media reported.
The
shooting came against the backdrop of a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and
car-ramming attacks that erupted in October 2015.
Israeli
security forces have been accused of using excessive force in certain other
cases as well, though authorities say officers act appropriately to protect
themselves and civilians.
Most of the
attacks were by lone-wolf assailants, many of them young people, including
teenagers. Israel's military has said it believes a significant number of them
were essentially on suicide missions.
The
violence has greatly subsided in recent months.
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"... Taught to Hate From Birth
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