In a rare case of justice served, an Israeli soldier who shot and killed a wounded Palestinian man after he was already disarmed and immobile was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday. The news is a small victory in bringing greater accountability to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF); but it shouldn’t distract from the systemic oppression still continuing in Israel and Palestine.
In March, Israeli Defense Forces Sgt. Elor Azaria, 20, shot Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, in the head as he lay unmoving on the ground. The shooting took place after al-Sharif and another 21-year-old Palestinian, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, stabbed and injured an Israeli soldier. Israeli troops opened fire, killing Qasrawi and wounding al-Sharif. As the ambulance arrived several minutes later, Azaria then shot and killed al-Sharif.
The shooting took place in Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Footage of the incident was released by Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem and quickly divided the Israeli public and politicians.
(Caution: parts of this video are blurred out, but it is still graphic.)
According to the Associated Press, military judge Col. Maya Heller took almost three hours to deliver the verdict, ultimately ruling against Azaria’s defense. “Azaria acted coldly and with calculation, took his time clearing people. This does not work with acting toward immediate danger,” said Heller. “The fact that the man on the ground was a terrorist does not justify a disproportionate response.”
Al-Sharif’s father told the Associated Press he welcomed the conviction. “I feel good. It is fair,” he said. “This is an achievement of the court that it condemned the soldier.”
The conviction was an isolated incident. The killing was not.
According to the Human Rights Watch, since October 2015 there have been more than 150 instances in which Israeli security forces shot and killed both Palestinian adults and children suspected of trying to attack Israelis. In the same amount of time, Palestinian assailants have killed 33 Israelis.
As Human Rights Watch reported, this is because some senior Israeli officials — including the police and defense ministers — have encouraged Israeli police and soldiers to kill suspected Palestinian attackers, even if they are no longer threats. Other Israeli officials ignore the disproportionate use of force.
“Whatever the results of trials of individual soldiers, the Israeli government should issue clear directives to use force only in accordance with international law,” said Sari Bashi, the Israel advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.
Israeli security forces have used disproportionate force to arrest and detain Palestinian children as young as 11 years old. “Security forces have choked children, thrown stun grenades at them, beaten them in custody, threatened and interrogated them without the presence of parents or lawyers, and failed to let their parents know their whereabouts,” Human Rights Watch reported.
After news of the verdict on Wednesday, hundreds of people protested outside of the court and chanted “Free Azaria!” and “Terrorists need to die!”
Protestors stormed police barricade pic.twitter.com/FQHW8H4vcG
— Eliyahu Kamisher (@Eli_DovBear) January 4, 2017
Many Israeli politicians have also expressed their outrage at the verdict and are calling for a pardon of Azaria including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I support a pardon for Elor Azaria,” he wrote on Facebook, as translated by the BBC.
“Today a soldier who killed a terrorist who deserved to die, who had tried to slaughter a soldier, was put in handcuffs and convicted like a criminal,” Naftali Bennett, leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party, wrote on Facebook, as translated by Haaretz. Bennett called for an “immediate pardon” for Azaria.
Knesset member Shelly Yacimovich (of the Zionist Union party) also said “careful consideration should be given to the possibility of pardoning him.”
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who had expressed his support for Azaria earlier, told reporters that “despite the difficult verdict, the defense establishment will do everything it can to assist the soldier and his family.” Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev also submitted an official pardon request to Lieberman after the verdict was announced.
This piece was updated to reflect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for a pardon.