Loading ...Israeli soldier gets lenient 18-month sentencing for manslaughter charge
Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier who shot dead a disarmed and injured Palestinian attacker in the West Bank city of Hebron on March 24, 2016, is surrounded by family and friends as he awaits to hear his sentence in a courtroom at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, on February 21, 2017. (Jim Hollander/POOL)BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer
An Israeli soldier convicted of killing an unarmed, wounded Palestinian assailant – lying on the ground several feet away – was sentenced to 18 months of prison on Tuesday. Prosecutors asked for a 3-5 year sentence, but the soldier, Sergeant Elor Azaria, who has since been demoted to private, was given great leniency.
The incident occurred eleven months ago in the occupied Palestinian town, Hebron, after two Palestinians stabbed and wounded another soldier. The first assailant was shot dead by Israeli soldier, while the second, Abd Elfatah Ashareef, 21, lay on the ground, suffering from gun shot wounds. Eleven minutes after the event, Azaria murdered Ashareef with a shot to the head.
A three-judge Israeli military court convicted Azaria of manslaughter last month in a case many Palestinians called a victory. The judges agreed that Azaria had taken it upon himself to be “both judge and executioner,” stirring controversy in Israel. Rabbis, political leaders, other IDF soldier, and civilians praised Azaria as a hero and berated the judges for days after last month’s hearing. Witnesses in the court room said Azaria shared zero remorse or regret for his actions, and embraced his fan-base.
The majority of Israeli Defense Force officers who kill or injure Palestinians in the occupied territories often never face trial or consequences. Many who kill Palestinians are revered as heroes, and nearly half of all Israeli Jews believe “any Palestinian attacker should be killed on the spot.”
In Israel, a manslaughter charge has a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Prosecutors asked for 3-5 years because Azaria had killed an assailant, as opposed to a bystander, and because it was his first combat experience. However, Azaria was not engaged in combat, he was staring at one dead body and one wounded body. He used his power over these men not only in occupation, but also in actual military force. Eighteen months in prison is far too little time for the evident murder of another human being.
The Palestinian Authority said the sentencing gave Israeli soldiers a “green light” to carry out “executions” without fear of real punishment. With the 50th anniversary of the occupation coming up this summer, Azaria’s sentencing and supporters offer Palestinians a dreary outlook for the future ahead.
When Palestinians commit crimes – violent or not – they are punished with kidnappings, home demolitions, imprisonment without trials, injury, and murder. However, when an Israeli commits a crime against a Palestinian – no matter the circumstances in which they happened – they are praised as heroes and given leniency.
This blatant inequality is just another example of the mentality that’s developed in Israel, wherein Israelis are the victims and Palestinians are the assailants. Yet, a Palestinian’s urge to wield a knife at an Israeli soldier wouldn’t exist without the ongoing illegal occupation, settlements project, and severely restricted liberties.
