Israeli sentenced for killing hurt attacker
Soldier gets 18 months in case that divided country.
An Israeli sol- JERUSALEM — dier who shot an incapacitated Palestinian attacker in the head was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday, in a case that has divided Israelis and prompted calls for his pardon.
Col. Maya Heller, a judge speaking on beh a lf of a military panel in Tel Aviv, reminded the defendant, Sgt. Elor Azaria, that his convic- tion for manslaughter was “grave” and that he could have faced up to 20 years in prison.
“The acts of the defendant are serious,” the judge said. “The accused damaged the purity of arms which is so holy” in the Israel military, she added. “There is a need to safeguard humanity.”
Azaria, now 20, was convicted in January by a panel of military judges for the March death of Abdel al-Fatah al-Sharif in Hebron. Widely shared video showed the sergeant shoot- ing al-Sharif, who was lying still on his back, in the head. Al-Sharif and another Pal- estinian had stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint. Israeli sol- diers killed the other man and wounded al-Sharif.
The case unfolded against a backdrop of random attacks by Palestinians using guns, knives and vehicles that had killed at least 28 Israelis in a little over four months. The decision to prosecute Azaria rapidly emerged as a flash point in the debate over the Israeli military and its role as the nation’s conscience and most trusted institution.
Conservatives in Israel expressed outrage, with Naftali Bennett, the education minister, accusing the gener- als of being “quick to pounce on the soldier,” while others launched a bitter campaign against the defense minister, Moshe Yaalon. Many Israe- lis said Azaria should not have been punished for put- ting his life on the line in the military; service is required for most young Israelis and is held in high esteem in the country.
Palestinians and Israeli rights advocates said the events showed a callousness to Palestinian life. An Israeli legal and human rights advo- cacy group that opposes Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Yesh Din, has said that before the case involving Azaria, only one Israeli sol- dier had been charged and convicted of homicide after more than 260 investiga- tions into Palestinian fatalities since 2000.
Traditionally, generals have preached restraint in the face of Palestinian violence and adherence to open-fire regulations, which dictate that soldiers should shoot only to neutralize a threat. But under the pres- sure of continued violence last winter, that consensus had eroded.