IDF soldier convicted of manslaughter in divisive Hebron shooting case

YONAH JEREMY BOB | 01/04/2017 | Jerusalem Post

IDF chief expresses little sympathy ahead of verdict in Hebron shooter case. Verdict delivered in nearly 8-month case surrounding March 2016 incident in which IDF soldier Elor Azaria was filmed shooting a seemingly incapacitated Palestinian terrorist.

An IDF soldier accused of unnecessarily killing a Palestinian terrorist who was already wounded and subdued was convicted of manslaughter at the Kiriya military court in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

The trial of IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria, who was caught on film shooting Palestinian stabbing assailant Abdel Fatah Sharif in Hebron on March 24, has divided the nation, as was evidenced by the violent clashes between police and Azaria supporters outside the courtroom.A panel of three judges determined after the contentious eight-month trial that Azaria’s shooting of Sharif was not justified. Sentencing was due to be handed down at a later date.

The judges rejected Azaria’s claims that he had acted in self-defense, fearing that Sharif may have been wearing an explosives vest.  They pointed to testimony of several people on the scene that Azaria had originally said that Sharif needed to be killed out of revenge for stabbing a soldier. Only later did Azaria’s defense come up with the story that he feared Sharif may still be dangerous, the judges said.

The judges took more than two hours delivering their verdict, shooting down the defense’s claims one after the other. The judges focused on testimony of a fellow soldier and friend of Azaria, who testified that the defendant had told him he carried out the shooting for revenge. The defense’s cross examination of the soldier had failed to knock down this testimony, the judges contended.

Azaria’s admission, spontaneously,that he killed out of revenge is uniquely, objectively credible, Judge Maya Heller said, adding that he did not mention fear of an explosive device on the spot, but only after the fact. The court also accepted paramedic DS’s testimony that Azaria never mentioned a bomb, saying she had no incentive to lie. In addition, the judges added that Azaria had been evasive of many questions during cross-examination.

The judges did not mention three former IDF generals who testified on Azaria’s behalf. Heller stated that the judges rejected the defense’s claim that his commanding officer had hit him, and therefore testified against him. They also rejected a psychological report the defense filed to prove that Azaria was not in his right mind when he shot Sharif and gave his original version of the story, which he later changed.

The judges rejected the defense’s attempts to call the authenticity of the video of the incident into question. They said the video was authentic and showed evidence against Azaria, even though it was taken by  B’tselem. Heller said that Azaria acted coldly and was calculated, taking time clearing people away before he shot. He did not act as if he was facing immediate danger.

Immediately after the announcement of the verdict, Azaria’s lawyer, Ilan Katz, said that he would appeal. The case emerged after the March 24, 2016  incident that saw two Palestinians attacked two Israeli soldiers at the Tel Rumeida checkpoint in Hebron at around 8 a.m.

One of the soldiers was stabbed by Sharif, who was then shot and wounded, falling to the ground almost motionless, while the other Palestinian, Ramzi Kasrawi, was killed on the spot (according to most accounts). Around 10 minutes after the incident appeared to be over, Israeli army medic Azaria arrived on the scene and appeared to shoot Sharif in the head as he lay nearly motionless on the ground.

The entire incident was caught on an extended video released by left-wing NGO B’Tselem, which showed so much detail leading up to the incident that the IDF could not claim that Azaria had been lunged at or was otherwise exercising any traditional notion of self-defense as is usually claimed in such controversial incidents.

The video went viral, drawing international condemnation, and unusually, immediate classification as murder by then-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief-of- Staff Gadi Eisenkot. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned Azaria, though he did not use the word “murder.”

Azaria was immediately arrested and brought to court in handcuffs. But within a few days, other videos and information emerged showing that others on the scene had suspected and yelled that Sharif might be wearing a concealed explosive vest under his black jacket, potentially creating a self-defense argument for Azaria.