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al-Sharifs killer Elor Azraya
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Abdel Fattah al-Sharif 21
Ramsey Qasrawi 21 March 24 2016 |
8 jan 2017
By Jeremy Salt
The injustice in the trial of Elor Azaria begins with the charge, manslaughter. In March, 2016, Azaria walked up to the body of a severely wounded Palestinian, Abd al Fatah al Sharif, and shot him in the head as he lay on the ground. Video of the scene shows a bare-chested Israeli soldier being treated for minor wounds received during an alleged stabbing attack in Hebron by Al Sharif and another Palestinian, Ramzi Aziz al Qasrawi.
Whereas the soldier received immediate medical attention none was summoned for the two Palestinians. In any case, the precise circumstances of the clash between the soldiers and the two Palestinians were soon overtaken by what followed when Azaria arrived on the scene six minutes later, cocked his rifle and fired.
Al Qasrawi was fatally wounded and died on the spot. Al Sharif was seriously wounded, but, according to a pathologist giving evidence at Azaria’s trial, the wound was not fatal and he would have survived had he been given medical attention. Instead, Azaria, an IDF medic, put a bullet into his head, remarking, according to the evidence presented in court, ‘he needs to die.’
Azaria was not imprisoned but kept under ‘open arrest’ an at army base, which gave him freedom of movement around the base if not the freedom to leave it. Even the charge of manslaughter rather than murder brought cries of outrage from his supporters, not just his family and friends but the settler lobby and the extremist right figures dominating Israeli politics, notably Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett, whose attitude can be summed up in the remark he made in 2013 that ‘I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.’ So, if Elor Azaria shoots a wounded Palestinian terrorist, what’s the problem with that? He should not have been charged with anything but rather should have been commended for his bravery and his quick action in neutralizing a wounded but possibly still dangerous ‘terrorist.’
Clearly Azaria should have been charged with murder. He deliberately shot a wounded man in the head and that is not ‘manslaughter.’ Although he claimed to believe the Palestinian may have been a wearing a suicide belt, this was dismissed in the court hearing as one of the many lies he was telling. No, in truth, Al Sharif was a Palestinian who needed to die for no other real reason than that he was a Palestinian. Azaria’s behavior was not the slightest bit aberrant but rather representative of extreme Zionist thinking about the Palestinians that begins with the denial of their rights and often ends in their death. Because they have no right to be on the land they have no right of resistance or even the right to a fair trial, if such a thing can be imagined for a people living under occupation. Accordingly, ‘terrorists’ who are only wounded should be finished off on the spot. No soldier or civilian should ever be convicted just for doing their duty or for shooting any Palestinian who even raises their suspicions.
Immediately after the murder Azaria was videoed shaking hands with Baruch Marzel. The affinities between them are clear. Azaria believes Palestinians need to die and so does Marzel. Hebron is a city in which unarmed Palestinians live daily at the mercy not just of Zionist police or soldiers but of heavily armed settlers, who swagger through the streets with loaded assault rifles over their shoulder, provoking the Palestinians and ready to kill them at the slightest opportunity. The American-born settler Marzel is a leader of this cowardly pack. Formerly associated with Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach party he now forms equally vicious political alliances of his own. He has celebrated at the grave of Baruch Goldstein, the fellow American colonist who massacred 29 Palestinians and wounded many more in the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994. He has openly called for the murder of Uri Avnery and other leftists and he hates homosexuals with the same vehemence. Marzel was on the scene soon after the shooting of Al Sharif and was then filmed shaking hands with Azaria, in friendship or on a job well done or a combination of both.
The trial was stricken with lies and dubious witness statements. It was revealed that an ambulance orderly had kicked a knife lying on the ground closer towards Al Sharif and had tampered with other evidence. This is hardly the first time that a weapon has been deliberately placed close to the hand of a Palestinian killed by soldiers, police or settlers, so an ambulance orderly fixing the evidence to help out the murderer of a Palestinian should not surprise. The ambulance was called for the slightly wounded Israeli soldier, not the seriously wounded Palestinians. This is not exceptional but typical. Many wounded Palestinians have died when they might have lived had an ambulance been summoned in time. They die where they fall and are eventually dragged away without any respect for their human dignity.
The witnesses for the defense included a retired pathologist who claimed that Al Sharif had already died when he was shot by Azaria. His credentials were marred by the revelation that he had been involved in organ harvesting. A surgeon also claimed that Al Sharif was already dead when shot in the head, but it turned out that he was a cardiologist, not a forensic medical specialist, whom the prosecution alleged had been fired from the Hadassah medical center for falsifying a document. Another witness claimed that when Azaria shot Al Sharif in the head he didn’t shoot to kill.
Part of the defense case rested on the argument that as other police and soldiers had killed Palestinians before in similar circumstances, why should their man be facing charges? And this of course is true, because Palestinians have been murdered by soldiers, police, members of the intelligence services and settlers going back to the birth of the state with few charges ever being laid, and with these always resulting in risible sentences and early release once the heat is off.
Representatives of the IDF argued that Azaria’s deed represented a grave breach of the army’s values and standards when the opposite is true. Azaria’s premeditated murder is perfectly consistent with the IDF’s behavior across occupied Palestine ever since 1948. Had Azaria not been filmed the army can be relied upon to have cooked up a story that the wounded man made some kind of movement indicating that he was still a threat that needed ‘neutralizing.’ Then Azaria would not have been charged, just as numerous others who have killed Palestinians in questionable circumstances have not been charged. The problem was not the deed itself but the camera recording the deed.
The brutality of the army has been on display on the West Bank, across Gaza and in Lebanon for decades. It is not just the pilots or tank commanders who have shelled apartment blocks or fired white phosphorus shells into compounds where civilians are sheltering or have shot down dozens of young police on their graduation day but the individual soldiers who have casually shot Palestinian civilians, targeting even old people and small children.
The army command structure has changed radically since Israel was driven out of Lebanon by Hezbollah in 2000 and was pushed back again in 2006. The number of settler zealots appointed to senior positions has increased in the apparent belief that fighting for the Lord is more likely to be effective as a motive force on the battlefield than fighting for the land. The ‘Dahiya strategy’ dominates, according to which it will not be just one suburb of Beirut that will be destroyed in the next war with Hezbollah but all Lebanon. This plan for the blanket destruction of civilians and civilian infrastructure has been played out in Gaza where it is not just the ‘terrorists’ but every Palestinian that members of Israel’s ‘defense forces’ are taught to regard as an enemy they should kill if necessary. Thus the soldier who kills a Palestinian innocently crossing the street in Gaza or picking vegetables on the other side of the fence is most unlikely to be charged.
The guilty verdict against Azaria reignited protests across the country. Sentence is expected to be delivered on January 15. The maximum term for manslaughter would be 20 years but a far lighter term is expected and if the past is any guide, Azaria could be expected to be released into some form of home detention once the furor has died down.
Calls for a pardon came from Avigdor Lieberman, who campaigned for Azaria during the legal proceedings before being appointed Israel’s ‘defense’ minister, and from Naftali Bennett, the head of the Jewish Home Party. Netanyahu added his voice to theirs, describing the conviction as ‘a difficult and painful day, first and foremost for Elor, Israel’s soldiers [and] many citizens and parents of soldiers, among them me.’ How much more difficult, one imagines, would it be for the parents of the murdered man who have lost a son forever and know that the justice system will again not actually serve justice.
The verdict of guilty was handed down as Israel was reacting with outrage to the resolution of the UN Security Council affirming the complete illegality of the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Netanyahu responded by reprimanding the ambassadors of governments that voted for the resolution and by cutting Israel’s already paltry financial contribution to the UN, an organisation which it loathes. Israel also directed its anger against Barrack Obama for allowing the resolution to pass by abstaining from the vote. It is true that the abstention was a calculated slap in the face for Netanyahu, who never passed up an opportunity to humiliate Obama but is congenitally incapable of rolling with any punch.
Only recently the US had signed off in a colossal aid package to Israel of $38 billion but it seems that the mouth that bites the hand that feeds it never stops biting even when it is American. Again the message sent forth is that it is not Israel that is out of step with the world: it is the world that is out of step with Israel and the world that has to change. Far from reconciling itself with world opinion Israel deliberately and aggressively goes further in the opposite direction.
The coming year will mark the anniversary of three important historical developments: the issuing of the Balfour Declaration (November 2, 1917); the Zionist onslaught on Egypt and Syria known as the ‘Six Day War’ (June 5-June 10); and within that time frame, the occupation, on June 7, of east Jerusalem. These events will be the occasion for major celebrations by the Zionists and reflective mourning by the Palestinians. Consistent with the theme that the West Bank and east Jerusalem were not occupied but ‘liberated’, the Israeli government’s propaganda campaign will center not on universal rights as proclaimed in countless laws, conventions and treaties, in this context specifically the rights of the Palestinian people, but on the fraudulent ‘right’ of the ‘Jewish people’ to hold, settle and, undoubtedly, eventually annex the territory seized during war in 1967.
That in Israel and around the world ‘Jewish people’ are dissociating themselves from any such ‘right’ is immaterial to Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman, Benyamin Netanyahu, Baruch Marzel and their ideological cohorts. It should be remarked, however, that these people should not be regarded as some kind of ideological aberration. Zionism is and always was an extreme ideology and they are its natural outgrowth. The aspirations of the current generation of ‘extremists’ are no different in practice from the aspirations of the founding generation of ‘moderate’ Labor Zionists.
Going back as far as Theodor Herzl mainstream Zionism wanted nothing less than all of Palestine. No room was ever allowed for the Palestinians except in the mendacious statements of Zionist leaders. 1948 was merely a step along the way and from the beginning of the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, ‘moderate’ Zionists have colonized just as zealously as the ‘extremists.’ It was not just Menahim Begin and his ideological acolytes but the ‘moderates’ who debased every peace opportunity that came along. Thus while ‘moderate’ Zionists are railing at the ‘extremists’ they should know where to look in assigning responsibility for the present situation.
A recent poll carried out by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 65 per cent of Jewish Israelis support Elon Azaria’s claim of self-defense notwithstanding its rejection by the army and the court. Put this together with the fury at the passage of the UNSC resolution and with the complete rejection of a one-state or a two-state solution is it is very clear that the state of Israel is speeding towards a dead end, no matter how self-assured and confident it may appear right now.
– Jeremy Salt taught at the University of Melbourne, at Bosporus University in Istanbul and Bilkent University in Ankara for many years, specializing in the modern history of the Middle East. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
The injustice in the trial of Elor Azaria begins with the charge, manslaughter. In March, 2016, Azaria walked up to the body of a severely wounded Palestinian, Abd al Fatah al Sharif, and shot him in the head as he lay on the ground. Video of the scene shows a bare-chested Israeli soldier being treated for minor wounds received during an alleged stabbing attack in Hebron by Al Sharif and another Palestinian, Ramzi Aziz al Qasrawi.
Whereas the soldier received immediate medical attention none was summoned for the two Palestinians. In any case, the precise circumstances of the clash between the soldiers and the two Palestinians were soon overtaken by what followed when Azaria arrived on the scene six minutes later, cocked his rifle and fired.
Al Qasrawi was fatally wounded and died on the spot. Al Sharif was seriously wounded, but, according to a pathologist giving evidence at Azaria’s trial, the wound was not fatal and he would have survived had he been given medical attention. Instead, Azaria, an IDF medic, put a bullet into his head, remarking, according to the evidence presented in court, ‘he needs to die.’
Azaria was not imprisoned but kept under ‘open arrest’ an at army base, which gave him freedom of movement around the base if not the freedom to leave it. Even the charge of manslaughter rather than murder brought cries of outrage from his supporters, not just his family and friends but the settler lobby and the extremist right figures dominating Israeli politics, notably Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett, whose attitude can be summed up in the remark he made in 2013 that ‘I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with that.’ So, if Elor Azaria shoots a wounded Palestinian terrorist, what’s the problem with that? He should not have been charged with anything but rather should have been commended for his bravery and his quick action in neutralizing a wounded but possibly still dangerous ‘terrorist.’
Clearly Azaria should have been charged with murder. He deliberately shot a wounded man in the head and that is not ‘manslaughter.’ Although he claimed to believe the Palestinian may have been a wearing a suicide belt, this was dismissed in the court hearing as one of the many lies he was telling. No, in truth, Al Sharif was a Palestinian who needed to die for no other real reason than that he was a Palestinian. Azaria’s behavior was not the slightest bit aberrant but rather representative of extreme Zionist thinking about the Palestinians that begins with the denial of their rights and often ends in their death. Because they have no right to be on the land they have no right of resistance or even the right to a fair trial, if such a thing can be imagined for a people living under occupation. Accordingly, ‘terrorists’ who are only wounded should be finished off on the spot. No soldier or civilian should ever be convicted just for doing their duty or for shooting any Palestinian who even raises their suspicions.
Immediately after the murder Azaria was videoed shaking hands with Baruch Marzel. The affinities between them are clear. Azaria believes Palestinians need to die and so does Marzel. Hebron is a city in which unarmed Palestinians live daily at the mercy not just of Zionist police or soldiers but of heavily armed settlers, who swagger through the streets with loaded assault rifles over their shoulder, provoking the Palestinians and ready to kill them at the slightest opportunity. The American-born settler Marzel is a leader of this cowardly pack. Formerly associated with Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Kach party he now forms equally vicious political alliances of his own. He has celebrated at the grave of Baruch Goldstein, the fellow American colonist who massacred 29 Palestinians and wounded many more in the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994. He has openly called for the murder of Uri Avnery and other leftists and he hates homosexuals with the same vehemence. Marzel was on the scene soon after the shooting of Al Sharif and was then filmed shaking hands with Azaria, in friendship or on a job well done or a combination of both.
The trial was stricken with lies and dubious witness statements. It was revealed that an ambulance orderly had kicked a knife lying on the ground closer towards Al Sharif and had tampered with other evidence. This is hardly the first time that a weapon has been deliberately placed close to the hand of a Palestinian killed by soldiers, police or settlers, so an ambulance orderly fixing the evidence to help out the murderer of a Palestinian should not surprise. The ambulance was called for the slightly wounded Israeli soldier, not the seriously wounded Palestinians. This is not exceptional but typical. Many wounded Palestinians have died when they might have lived had an ambulance been summoned in time. They die where they fall and are eventually dragged away without any respect for their human dignity.
The witnesses for the defense included a retired pathologist who claimed that Al Sharif had already died when he was shot by Azaria. His credentials were marred by the revelation that he had been involved in organ harvesting. A surgeon also claimed that Al Sharif was already dead when shot in the head, but it turned out that he was a cardiologist, not a forensic medical specialist, whom the prosecution alleged had been fired from the Hadassah medical center for falsifying a document. Another witness claimed that when Azaria shot Al Sharif in the head he didn’t shoot to kill.
Part of the defense case rested on the argument that as other police and soldiers had killed Palestinians before in similar circumstances, why should their man be facing charges? And this of course is true, because Palestinians have been murdered by soldiers, police, members of the intelligence services and settlers going back to the birth of the state with few charges ever being laid, and with these always resulting in risible sentences and early release once the heat is off.
Representatives of the IDF argued that Azaria’s deed represented a grave breach of the army’s values and standards when the opposite is true. Azaria’s premeditated murder is perfectly consistent with the IDF’s behavior across occupied Palestine ever since 1948. Had Azaria not been filmed the army can be relied upon to have cooked up a story that the wounded man made some kind of movement indicating that he was still a threat that needed ‘neutralizing.’ Then Azaria would not have been charged, just as numerous others who have killed Palestinians in questionable circumstances have not been charged. The problem was not the deed itself but the camera recording the deed.
The brutality of the army has been on display on the West Bank, across Gaza and in Lebanon for decades. It is not just the pilots or tank commanders who have shelled apartment blocks or fired white phosphorus shells into compounds where civilians are sheltering or have shot down dozens of young police on their graduation day but the individual soldiers who have casually shot Palestinian civilians, targeting even old people and small children.
The army command structure has changed radically since Israel was driven out of Lebanon by Hezbollah in 2000 and was pushed back again in 2006. The number of settler zealots appointed to senior positions has increased in the apparent belief that fighting for the Lord is more likely to be effective as a motive force on the battlefield than fighting for the land. The ‘Dahiya strategy’ dominates, according to which it will not be just one suburb of Beirut that will be destroyed in the next war with Hezbollah but all Lebanon. This plan for the blanket destruction of civilians and civilian infrastructure has been played out in Gaza where it is not just the ‘terrorists’ but every Palestinian that members of Israel’s ‘defense forces’ are taught to regard as an enemy they should kill if necessary. Thus the soldier who kills a Palestinian innocently crossing the street in Gaza or picking vegetables on the other side of the fence is most unlikely to be charged.
The guilty verdict against Azaria reignited protests across the country. Sentence is expected to be delivered on January 15. The maximum term for manslaughter would be 20 years but a far lighter term is expected and if the past is any guide, Azaria could be expected to be released into some form of home detention once the furor has died down.
Calls for a pardon came from Avigdor Lieberman, who campaigned for Azaria during the legal proceedings before being appointed Israel’s ‘defense’ minister, and from Naftali Bennett, the head of the Jewish Home Party. Netanyahu added his voice to theirs, describing the conviction as ‘a difficult and painful day, first and foremost for Elor, Israel’s soldiers [and] many citizens and parents of soldiers, among them me.’ How much more difficult, one imagines, would it be for the parents of the murdered man who have lost a son forever and know that the justice system will again not actually serve justice.
The verdict of guilty was handed down as Israel was reacting with outrage to the resolution of the UN Security Council affirming the complete illegality of the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Netanyahu responded by reprimanding the ambassadors of governments that voted for the resolution and by cutting Israel’s already paltry financial contribution to the UN, an organisation which it loathes. Israel also directed its anger against Barrack Obama for allowing the resolution to pass by abstaining from the vote. It is true that the abstention was a calculated slap in the face for Netanyahu, who never passed up an opportunity to humiliate Obama but is congenitally incapable of rolling with any punch.
Only recently the US had signed off in a colossal aid package to Israel of $38 billion but it seems that the mouth that bites the hand that feeds it never stops biting even when it is American. Again the message sent forth is that it is not Israel that is out of step with the world: it is the world that is out of step with Israel and the world that has to change. Far from reconciling itself with world opinion Israel deliberately and aggressively goes further in the opposite direction.
The coming year will mark the anniversary of three important historical developments: the issuing of the Balfour Declaration (November 2, 1917); the Zionist onslaught on Egypt and Syria known as the ‘Six Day War’ (June 5-June 10); and within that time frame, the occupation, on June 7, of east Jerusalem. These events will be the occasion for major celebrations by the Zionists and reflective mourning by the Palestinians. Consistent with the theme that the West Bank and east Jerusalem were not occupied but ‘liberated’, the Israeli government’s propaganda campaign will center not on universal rights as proclaimed in countless laws, conventions and treaties, in this context specifically the rights of the Palestinian people, but on the fraudulent ‘right’ of the ‘Jewish people’ to hold, settle and, undoubtedly, eventually annex the territory seized during war in 1967.
That in Israel and around the world ‘Jewish people’ are dissociating themselves from any such ‘right’ is immaterial to Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman, Benyamin Netanyahu, Baruch Marzel and their ideological cohorts. It should be remarked, however, that these people should not be regarded as some kind of ideological aberration. Zionism is and always was an extreme ideology and they are its natural outgrowth. The aspirations of the current generation of ‘extremists’ are no different in practice from the aspirations of the founding generation of ‘moderate’ Labor Zionists.
Going back as far as Theodor Herzl mainstream Zionism wanted nothing less than all of Palestine. No room was ever allowed for the Palestinians except in the mendacious statements of Zionist leaders. 1948 was merely a step along the way and from the beginning of the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, ‘moderate’ Zionists have colonized just as zealously as the ‘extremists.’ It was not just Menahim Begin and his ideological acolytes but the ‘moderates’ who debased every peace opportunity that came along. Thus while ‘moderate’ Zionists are railing at the ‘extremists’ they should know where to look in assigning responsibility for the present situation.
A recent poll carried out by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 65 per cent of Jewish Israelis support Elon Azaria’s claim of self-defense notwithstanding its rejection by the army and the court. Put this together with the fury at the passage of the UNSC resolution and with the complete rejection of a one-state or a two-state solution is it is very clear that the state of Israel is speeding towards a dead end, no matter how self-assured and confident it may appear right now.
– Jeremy Salt taught at the University of Melbourne, at Bosporus University in Istanbul and Bilkent University in Ankara for many years, specializing in the modern history of the Middle East. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
A horde of Jewish settlers on Saturday evening threw stones at the house of Palestinian human rights activist Imad Abu Shamsiya, who recorded a video showing an Israeli soldier killing in cold blood a wounded young man lying on the ground in al-Khalil last year.
Eyewitnesses reported that the settlers chanted racist slurs and death threats against Abu Shamsiya as they were hurling stones at the house, adding that they tried to break into the house and assault the residents.
The family of Abu Shamsiya lives in a house near the illegal settlement of Ramat Yishai and the military checkpoint called Gilbert in al-Khalil, where 21-year-old Abdul-Fattah al-Sharif was killed.
In the incident on March 24, 2016, Sharif and another 21-year-old Palestinian, Ramzi al-Qasrawi, allegedly stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier before troops opened fire on them, wounding Sharif and killing Qasrawi.
Footage of the scene several minutes later, filmed by Abu Shamsiya and released by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, shows Sharif was lying immovable on the ground but alive.
A young soldier, identified as Elor Azaria, is then seen cocking his rifle and fatally shooting Sharif in the head at point-blank range.
A Tel Aviv court last Wednesday convicted Azaria of manslaughter. Its verdict angered Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet members, who called for granting the soldier an immediate pardon and releasing him.
Eyewitnesses reported that the settlers chanted racist slurs and death threats against Abu Shamsiya as they were hurling stones at the house, adding that they tried to break into the house and assault the residents.
The family of Abu Shamsiya lives in a house near the illegal settlement of Ramat Yishai and the military checkpoint called Gilbert in al-Khalil, where 21-year-old Abdul-Fattah al-Sharif was killed.
In the incident on March 24, 2016, Sharif and another 21-year-old Palestinian, Ramzi al-Qasrawi, allegedly stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier before troops opened fire on them, wounding Sharif and killing Qasrawi.
Footage of the scene several minutes later, filmed by Abu Shamsiya and released by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, shows Sharif was lying immovable on the ground but alive.
A young soldier, identified as Elor Azaria, is then seen cocking his rifle and fatally shooting Sharif in the head at point-blank range.
A Tel Aviv court last Wednesday convicted Azaria of manslaughter. Its verdict angered Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet members, who called for granting the soldier an immediate pardon and releasing him.
7 jan 2017
Police detain a 33-year-old Jerusalemite for statements he allegedly made outside the courthouse against the IDF chief of staff on the day when Sgt. Elor Azaria was convicted of manslaughter; the attorney general had instructed the police to investigate the calls to incitement that have been rife in response to the conviction.
Israel Police arrested on Saturday night a 33-year-old man from Jerusalem who is suspected of having incited to violence against IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot at a demonstration in support of Sgt. Elor Azaria on Wednesday.
The suspect allegedly was present at the demonstration outside the military courthouse when Azaria was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of the incapacitated Palestinian terrorist, Abed al Fatah a-Sharif, in March.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit had instructed the police this week to investigate calls to violence against Eisenkot. Protestors had been heard chanting, "Gadi, Gadi beware, Rabin's looking for a friend," referring to the prime minister who was assassinated in 1994. One protestor was recorded yelling into a microphone, "This night, you're going to die!"
The incitement to violence drew public letters of support from dozens of reservist battalion commanders, Eisenkot's predecessor, Lt. Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz, and the Association for Former Members of Sayeret Matkal. On Saturday night, several thousand Israelis participated in a rally against incitement.
The suspect's lawyer Itamar Ben Gvir said, "The suspect was summoned on Sunday for questioning and intended to arrive, but following the rally and the media's unfair criticism, the young man was arrested in a showcase of police action." He insisted that there was no reason to arrest his client.
He added, "The guy is disabled. His condition isn't good. He came to the rally in support of the soldier Elor Azaria and protested the fact that Elor, the child of us all, was abandoned. The things that were said were said during emotional turmoil, and the suspect regrets them and expressed remorse in his questioning.
"However, when Israeli Arabs wished death on IDF soldiers or expressed joy at the death of soldiers, nobody arrested them. The young man came to the rally for the army, for the nation, for a combat soldier who was abandoned on the battlefield. There's no rationale for his arrest…I'm sorry that the police are acting out of political motivations."
Anticipated deal to determine the sentence of soldier Elor Azaria
Israeli channel Two Friday evening disclosed an anticipated deal to be reached by Israeli attorney general and the defense team for soldier Elor Azaria, who killed the Palestinian youth Abdul Fattah al-Sharif in al-Khalil. The deal aims at determining the period of imprisonment of Azaria after he had been convicted for manslaughter on Wednesday as long as no appeal was made.
Even though the court convicted Azaria for manslaughter, it affirmed that the reason behind the killing was not rooted in a sense of danger, but in his intention to avenge his friend.
President of the Tribunal, Colonel Maya Heller, said “soldier Elor had no justification to shoot the Palestinian man because he constituted no danger to him and that he shot him based on his belief that the Palestinian deserved to die”.
The family of al-Sharif perceived the Israeli verdict as ridiculous, and pointed out in a press conference in al-Khalil on Saturday that Israeli right-wing parties exerted every effort to defend the killer of their son who performed a cold-blooded murder that was caught on video.
Israel Police arrested on Saturday night a 33-year-old man from Jerusalem who is suspected of having incited to violence against IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot at a demonstration in support of Sgt. Elor Azaria on Wednesday.
The suspect allegedly was present at the demonstration outside the military courthouse when Azaria was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of the incapacitated Palestinian terrorist, Abed al Fatah a-Sharif, in March.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit had instructed the police this week to investigate calls to violence against Eisenkot. Protestors had been heard chanting, "Gadi, Gadi beware, Rabin's looking for a friend," referring to the prime minister who was assassinated in 1994. One protestor was recorded yelling into a microphone, "This night, you're going to die!"
The incitement to violence drew public letters of support from dozens of reservist battalion commanders, Eisenkot's predecessor, Lt. Gen. (res.) Benny Gantz, and the Association for Former Members of Sayeret Matkal. On Saturday night, several thousand Israelis participated in a rally against incitement.
The suspect's lawyer Itamar Ben Gvir said, "The suspect was summoned on Sunday for questioning and intended to arrive, but following the rally and the media's unfair criticism, the young man was arrested in a showcase of police action." He insisted that there was no reason to arrest his client.
He added, "The guy is disabled. His condition isn't good. He came to the rally in support of the soldier Elor Azaria and protested the fact that Elor, the child of us all, was abandoned. The things that were said were said during emotional turmoil, and the suspect regrets them and expressed remorse in his questioning.
"However, when Israeli Arabs wished death on IDF soldiers or expressed joy at the death of soldiers, nobody arrested them. The young man came to the rally for the army, for the nation, for a combat soldier who was abandoned on the battlefield. There's no rationale for his arrest…I'm sorry that the police are acting out of political motivations."
Anticipated deal to determine the sentence of soldier Elor Azaria
Israeli channel Two Friday evening disclosed an anticipated deal to be reached by Israeli attorney general and the defense team for soldier Elor Azaria, who killed the Palestinian youth Abdul Fattah al-Sharif in al-Khalil. The deal aims at determining the period of imprisonment of Azaria after he had been convicted for manslaughter on Wednesday as long as no appeal was made.
Even though the court convicted Azaria for manslaughter, it affirmed that the reason behind the killing was not rooted in a sense of danger, but in his intention to avenge his friend.
President of the Tribunal, Colonel Maya Heller, said “soldier Elor had no justification to shoot the Palestinian man because he constituted no danger to him and that he shot him based on his belief that the Palestinian deserved to die”.
The family of al-Sharif perceived the Israeli verdict as ridiculous, and pointed out in a press conference in al-Khalil on Saturday that Israeli right-wing parties exerted every effort to defend the killer of their son who performed a cold-blooded murder that was caught on video.
On 24 March 2016, Israeli soldier Elor Azaria executed a 21-year-old Palestinian by the name of Abd Al-Fattah al-Sharif, who having been shot, was laying on the ground, not posing a danger to anyone in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron.
Unluckily for this soldier, cameras in the area captured what happened next, documenting al-Sharif’s killing minute by minute as army officers nearby simply walked around.
Given the footage, the army had no option but to initiate an enquiry that ended with Azaria’s indictment last April on charges of manslaughter.
Since then, a storm has raged within Israeli society between those who support his prosecution and those oppose it.
Yet there were no voices denouncing the execution or the murder itself. The debate was about the harm that could be inflicted upon the image of the state and the army had there been no indictment and prosecution.
On Wednesday 4/1/2017, the military court in Jaffa found the soldier guilty of manslaughter.
'Shoot him in the head'
In the video clip that documents the execution, an Israeli ambulance driver, Ofer Ohana, can be heard shouting, “He is not dead; shoot him in the head.”
He then moves his ambulance so as to provide cover while the Israeli soldier points at Abd Al-Fattah’s head and shoots him dead.
The ambulance driver was not charged for his role in the execution. The military prosecutor was content with charging the soldier with manslaughter although all the evidence points to a fully fledged murder.
The Israeli media never mentioned martyr Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sharif by name, referring to him only as the Palestinian or the terrorist. There is hardly any mention of the condition of his family after his execution. The media simply regarded this to be a purely internal Israeli affair.
Crimes like this have happened inside the occupied territories hundreds of times during the past few years, but they usually occur in the dark without documentation or direct monitoring, allowing the Israeli army to get away with doing nothing about these crimes.
This particular incident is reminiscent of the martyrdom of 18-year-old Tariq al-Natsheh in Hebron on 17 October 2015 who was seen climbing into an Israeli ambulance while not in bad shape at all.
Yet, he was pronounced dead upon his arrival at the hospital, thus confirming Palestinian suspicion that Israeli paramedics are involved in the executions.
It is also reminiscent of the execution of 18-year-old Hadil al-Hashlamoun, the young woman who was martyred on 22 September 2015 in exactly the same location when an Israeli soldier shot her 15 times. The ambulance was deliberately held back so as not to pick her up in time. It turned out afterwards that she actually never posed any danger to the soldier. The Israeli army never charged her executioner.
Caught on camera
In his trial, Azaria claimed that it was not fair to try him in court when none of the other soldiers who did exactly the same as he did were charged and while everyone has been saying that, had his action not been caught on camera, he might not have been prosecuted.
The statement made at the time by Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon about the need to investigate the killings augmented the tension with the Israeli prime minister forcing Yaalon to resign from his cabinet position on 20 May 2016. He was, in fact, heavily criticised for his stance and was accused of supporting "human rights".
The chief of staff of the Israeli Army also came under similar attack and received the same kind of criticism for allowing the investigation to take place and allowing the soldier to be charged.
The irony is that these same officials who are responsible for planning and implementing hundreds of murders, the same men who ordered the execution of so many Palestinians and carried out crimes against humanity, are now accused of supporting human rights.
Their position in the Azaria case does not mean that they have turned into doves, nor will it wash away the crimes they themselves perpetrated.
Exception to the rule
The trial of soldier Azaria is the exception to the rule. Hundreds of crimes, executions and murders carried out by Israeli soldiers against the Palestinians have been disregarded and no investigation ever conducted into them.
In a report published by the Yish Din society in 2013, it is stated that 240 complaints were lodged against Israeli soldiers about crimes they perpetrated against the Palestinians. The military police investigated only 80 of them and no Israeli soldiers were ever charged as a result.
The same thing occurs every single year: hundreds of investigations rarely yield an indictment. This is the fig leaf used by the occupation as a cover to pretend in front of the rest of the world that nothing wrong is happening and that Israel is a state of law that punishes those who violate the law. International tribunals? Totally unnecessary, they want to show. And yet, on a daily basis, hundreds of crimes continue to be perpetrated against Palestinians.
In rare cases when Israeli soldiers who perpetrate crimes against Palestinians are charged, they usually get away with very light sentences. For example, a group of Israeli soldiers who filmed themselves while enjoying the beating and torture of a Palestinian prisoner, inflicting heavy physical and psychological damage on him, were released from prison in 2013 after less than four months.
In another case, an Israeli officer and an Israeli soldier executed 16-year-old Samir Awwad despite him posing no threat to them. At a recent hearing in November, a state prosecutor proposed that they two be sentenced to three months community service.
Pardoning murder
After the verdict was announced, the Israeli political leadership immediately announced their intention to pardon him – Netanyahu wrote it on his Facebook page - and preparations were set in motion to appeal to the president who has the final say on these matters.
Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page that he supports granting a pardon to Azaria; in doing so the prime minister joined the rest of his ministers.
Even ministers who originally called for prosecuting Azaria, such as Shelly Yachimovich from the Zionist Union party, also supported the call for a pardon.
If anyone still has any doubts about the kind of democracy Israel is, this incident once again confirms that the only democracy here is one on paper. Those who think the Israeli military court will serve justice for Palestinians are dreaming.
This court where Azaria was tried - located in a series of buildings known as the Green House and once inhabited by a displaced Palestinian family - is nothing more than a tool, seeking to polish the image of the occupation while it merely continues to oppress.
-Jihad Abu Raya is a Palestinian lawyer and activist based in northern Israel. He is a founder of the Falastenyat Movement. His article was published in the Middle East Eye website.
Unluckily for this soldier, cameras in the area captured what happened next, documenting al-Sharif’s killing minute by minute as army officers nearby simply walked around.
Given the footage, the army had no option but to initiate an enquiry that ended with Azaria’s indictment last April on charges of manslaughter.
Since then, a storm has raged within Israeli society between those who support his prosecution and those oppose it.
Yet there were no voices denouncing the execution or the murder itself. The debate was about the harm that could be inflicted upon the image of the state and the army had there been no indictment and prosecution.
On Wednesday 4/1/2017, the military court in Jaffa found the soldier guilty of manslaughter.
'Shoot him in the head'
In the video clip that documents the execution, an Israeli ambulance driver, Ofer Ohana, can be heard shouting, “He is not dead; shoot him in the head.”
He then moves his ambulance so as to provide cover while the Israeli soldier points at Abd Al-Fattah’s head and shoots him dead.
The ambulance driver was not charged for his role in the execution. The military prosecutor was content with charging the soldier with manslaughter although all the evidence points to a fully fledged murder.
The Israeli media never mentioned martyr Abd Al-Fattah Al-Sharif by name, referring to him only as the Palestinian or the terrorist. There is hardly any mention of the condition of his family after his execution. The media simply regarded this to be a purely internal Israeli affair.
Crimes like this have happened inside the occupied territories hundreds of times during the past few years, but they usually occur in the dark without documentation or direct monitoring, allowing the Israeli army to get away with doing nothing about these crimes.
This particular incident is reminiscent of the martyrdom of 18-year-old Tariq al-Natsheh in Hebron on 17 October 2015 who was seen climbing into an Israeli ambulance while not in bad shape at all.
Yet, he was pronounced dead upon his arrival at the hospital, thus confirming Palestinian suspicion that Israeli paramedics are involved in the executions.
It is also reminiscent of the execution of 18-year-old Hadil al-Hashlamoun, the young woman who was martyred on 22 September 2015 in exactly the same location when an Israeli soldier shot her 15 times. The ambulance was deliberately held back so as not to pick her up in time. It turned out afterwards that she actually never posed any danger to the soldier. The Israeli army never charged her executioner.
Caught on camera
In his trial, Azaria claimed that it was not fair to try him in court when none of the other soldiers who did exactly the same as he did were charged and while everyone has been saying that, had his action not been caught on camera, he might not have been prosecuted.
The statement made at the time by Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon about the need to investigate the killings augmented the tension with the Israeli prime minister forcing Yaalon to resign from his cabinet position on 20 May 2016. He was, in fact, heavily criticised for his stance and was accused of supporting "human rights".
The chief of staff of the Israeli Army also came under similar attack and received the same kind of criticism for allowing the investigation to take place and allowing the soldier to be charged.
The irony is that these same officials who are responsible for planning and implementing hundreds of murders, the same men who ordered the execution of so many Palestinians and carried out crimes against humanity, are now accused of supporting human rights.
Their position in the Azaria case does not mean that they have turned into doves, nor will it wash away the crimes they themselves perpetrated.
Exception to the rule
The trial of soldier Azaria is the exception to the rule. Hundreds of crimes, executions and murders carried out by Israeli soldiers against the Palestinians have been disregarded and no investigation ever conducted into them.
In a report published by the Yish Din society in 2013, it is stated that 240 complaints were lodged against Israeli soldiers about crimes they perpetrated against the Palestinians. The military police investigated only 80 of them and no Israeli soldiers were ever charged as a result.
The same thing occurs every single year: hundreds of investigations rarely yield an indictment. This is the fig leaf used by the occupation as a cover to pretend in front of the rest of the world that nothing wrong is happening and that Israel is a state of law that punishes those who violate the law. International tribunals? Totally unnecessary, they want to show. And yet, on a daily basis, hundreds of crimes continue to be perpetrated against Palestinians.
In rare cases when Israeli soldiers who perpetrate crimes against Palestinians are charged, they usually get away with very light sentences. For example, a group of Israeli soldiers who filmed themselves while enjoying the beating and torture of a Palestinian prisoner, inflicting heavy physical and psychological damage on him, were released from prison in 2013 after less than four months.
In another case, an Israeli officer and an Israeli soldier executed 16-year-old Samir Awwad despite him posing no threat to them. At a recent hearing in November, a state prosecutor proposed that they two be sentenced to three months community service.
Pardoning murder
After the verdict was announced, the Israeli political leadership immediately announced their intention to pardon him – Netanyahu wrote it on his Facebook page - and preparations were set in motion to appeal to the president who has the final say on these matters.
Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page that he supports granting a pardon to Azaria; in doing so the prime minister joined the rest of his ministers.
Even ministers who originally called for prosecuting Azaria, such as Shelly Yachimovich from the Zionist Union party, also supported the call for a pardon.
If anyone still has any doubts about the kind of democracy Israel is, this incident once again confirms that the only democracy here is one on paper. Those who think the Israeli military court will serve justice for Palestinians are dreaming.
This court where Azaria was tried - located in a series of buildings known as the Green House and once inhabited by a displaced Palestinian family - is nothing more than a tool, seeking to polish the image of the occupation while it merely continues to oppress.
-Jihad Abu Raya is a Palestinian lawyer and activist based in northern Israel. He is a founder of the Falastenyat Movement. His article was published in the Middle East Eye website.
