Israeli military court looks into case of Elor Azaria

The Israeli military court in Jaffa today looks into the appeal of soldier Elor Azaria, who shot dead a wounded Palestinian youth in Hebron on 24 March 2016.

Azaria in February was sentenced to 18 months in prison over “manslaughter”, a move which caused wide criticism against Israeli bias towards the crimes of its soldiers.

The prosecutors demanded 3 – 5 years in jail, saying that the sentence Azaria received did not match the dangerousness of his crime.

Media reports today said that Azaria’s lawyer will try to refute the prosecutors’ demands through looking at other similar cases of Israeli soldiers who did not recieve harsh punishment for such acts.

The lawyer also said that Azaria was scared that the victim, AbdulFattah Al-Sharif, had an explosive belt and therefore had to shoot him dead immediately.

The graphic shooting video, which was filmed by a Palestinian cameraman from B’Tselem rights group, went viral and sparked international rage.

The video shows Elor Azaria talking on the phone, then hangs up and steps closer to Al-Sharif, and shoots him in the head from a very close distance in presence of Israeli ambulances.

Source: PNN