Israel’s Rabbis and Far-Right Praise Soldier Who Killed Unarmed, Wounded Palestinian

posted on: Jan 6, 2017

BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer

An Israeli Army sergeant, Elor Azaria, was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday for the murder of an unarmed and wounded Palestinian assailant in Hebron.

Israeli soldiers are usually acquitted of such charges, but Azaria, who was 19 at the time, was found guilty of murdering Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif through a shot in the head in Hebron last year.

Since the ruling, Israel has been divided. Army general agree that the young sergeant broke the code of war, while far-right politicians, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu himself, are calling for Azaria to be pardoned. However, both army and rabbinic ethnics state that if an assailant has been contained, to harm him after is murder.

And yet, Israeli citizens, far-right politicians, and rabbis are hailing Azaria as a hero on social media and protesting his conviction in the streets. Politicians have said the video of the shooting makes Azaria a scapegoat and claim the ruling was unjust.

The three judges who ruled in Azaria’s case are facing death threats and have been given security detail. A man and a woman were arrested when their social media posts were verified as “incitement to violence” against the judges.

“Take a grenade and blow up the judge and scatter all of her parts in different places, let the dogs eat her,” the woman posted to Facebook. In other social media posts, the judges have been likened to Adolph Hitler.

Images supporting Azaria also include many weapons and military uniforms, emphasizing the adoration Israeli citizens have for the IDF.

Meanwhile, Palestinian members of the Knesset cannot visit the families of children killed by the IDF without being called accomplices and terrorists. The homes of Palestinian assailants are often demolished as a form of punishing the family for a crime they did not commit. Additionally, if President Abbas mentions an assailant’s name just once in a speech, relations between Israel and Palestine disintegrate for some time.

There is blatant hypocrisy evident in Israel’s reaction to the sentencing of Azaria. Palestinians are expected to condemn all murder, but Israelis allow themselves to celebrate murders of their choosing. These contradicting reactions to violence are symbolic of the severe inequality Israel imposes on Palestinians, who can’t even feel sorrow without the threat of being arrested.

According to Israeli police, Sharif and his friend Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, both 21 years old, stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier before troops opened fire on them. Sharif was wounded and Qasrawi was killed. According to a video of the incident, a few minutes later, while Sharif on the ground, wounded and unarmed, Azaria shoots him in the head standing several feet away.

The military court argued that Sharif clearly did not pose a danger anymore and it was not necessary to shoot him.

“One cannot use this type of force, even if we’re talking about an enemy’s life,” the court said in its verdict.