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href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/01/elor-azaria-case-hope-equality-law-170105070408594.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/01/elor-azaria-case-hope-equality-law-170105070408594.html</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Elor Azaria case: 'No hope of equality
before the law'</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Jonathan Cook - January
5, 2017<br>
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<p><strong> Nazareth - </strong> It was the trial almost
no one in Israel wanted.</p>
<p>Last March, army medic Elor Azaria was filmed firing a
bullet into the head of Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif, a
21-year-old Palestinian, as he lay wounded on the ground
in the city of Hebron. After <span id="ScMistake_73"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s arrest, there was
an outpouring of sympathy <a
href="http://www.btselem.org/firearms/20160324_soldier_executes_palestinian_attacker_in_hebron"
target="_blank"> for the soldier </a> from the
Israeli public, politicians and fellow soldiers.</p>
<p>Ordinary Israelis saw him as a victim of bad luck. He
was on trial only because his actions had been filmed.
Many Israelis felt it could be their own son in the
courtroom.</p>
<p>The army command feared the trial risked airing the
military's dirty secrets before the watching world. Some
even worried the case might lead to a mutiny among the
lower ranks, who identified with <span
id="ScMistake_74" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government,
meanwhile, worried that the proceedings would force it
into an <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4859523,00.html"
target="_blank"> uncomfortable choice </a> between
upholding the rule of law and championing the soldier.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, military prosecutors had little choice but
to indict <span id="ScMistake_75" class="ScMistakes">
Azaria </span> after the video footage went viral.</p>
<p>Aida Touma-Suleiman, a Palestinian member of the
Israeli parliament, told Al Jazeera that the context for
the trial was the growing fear in Israel that its
soldiers would, one day, face scrutiny from bodies like
the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.</p>
<p>"In a clear-cut case like this, it is important for
Israel to look as though it is taking war crimes
seriously, otherwise the ICC might itself decide to
investigate," she said. "But the case has caused
problems because it has upset right-wing politicians and
much of the Israeli public, who expect absolute impunity
for soldiers."</p>
<p>Given that mood, the army quickly dropped an initial
charge of murder against <span id="ScMistake_76"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>. Instead,
prosecutors settled for a manslaughter indictment, a
decision Sharif's family denounced this week as a
"perversion of justice". </p>
<p>On Wednesday, <span id="ScMistake_77"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria </span> was found guilty
of the reduced charge by a military tribunal. The three
military judges ruled: "He opened fire in violation of
orders. The terrorist [Sharif] did not pose any
threat." </p>
<p><span id="ScMistake_78" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
lawyers announced they would appeal.</p>
<p>Although the court is empowered to jail <span
id="ScMistake_80" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria </span>
for up to 20 years, it is certain to find grounds later
this month for awarding a lenient sentence.</p>
<p>The riots outside the court that greeted <span
id="ScMistake_81" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
conviction, and the subsequent decision to issue the
judges and prosecutor with bodyguards, will contribute
to the pressure on them. </p>
<p>Even before the sentencing, politicians, including
Netanyahu, launched a campaign to pressure President
Reuven Rivlin to pardon the soldier. </p>
<p>Touma-Suleiman said that historical precedents, such as
the amnesties given to security officials involved in
the Kfar Qassem massacre and the Bus 300 affair,
suggested that the campaign stood a good chance of
success. </p>
<p>"There has been a reign of terror designed to silence
anyone who has tried to stand up for human rights and
the rule of law in this case," she said.</p>
<p>If the aim of the trial was to demonstrate to the world
that Israel holds its soldiers properly to account when
they commit crimes, it has probably failed.</p>
<p>BTselem, an Israeli human rights group that first
publicised the video of the Hebron shooting, said in a
statement to Al Jazeera that <span id="ScMistake_82"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s conviction was
"exceptional". In most cases where soldiers were
suspected of executing Palestinians, the group said,
there was "<a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/report-slams-israel-military-law-enforcement-system-160523090208551.html"
target="_self">routine whitewashing</a>" by the army.</p>
<p><span id="ScMistake_83" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria </span>
is, in fact, the first Israeli soldier to be charged
with manslaughter since 2004, when a Bedouin sniper was
convicted of killing Tom Hurndall, a British activist in
Gaza.</p>
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<p><b><i>Azaria's actions didn't take place in a
vacuum. Senior politicians and security
officials effectively egged him on.</i></b></p>
<b><i>
</i></b>
<p class="quoted-author"><b><i>Sari Bashi, </i></b><b><i><span>
HRW's advocacy director in Israel and
Palestine </span></i></b></p>
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<p>Yesh Din, another Israeli human rights group, issued a
report this week noting that no investigations were
conducted into the killing by Israeli soldiers of 76
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last year. The
data, it said, showed an "inability and unwillingness"
to address <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4902701,00.html"
target="_blank"> unlawful conduct </a> by soldiers.</p>
<p>Adalah, a legal centre for Israel's Palestinian
minority, noted that there had been "zero indictments"
in a range of attacks it had identified by Israel that
killed Palestinians during Israel's 2014 assault on
Gaza.</p>
<p>Paradoxically, the lesson the army may have learned
from <span id="ScMistake_85" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
trial is the need for even greater secrecy.</p>
<p>Last April, weeks after the Hebron shooting, Israeli
security guards shot dead a Palestinian brother and
sister at the Qalandiya checkpoint, near Jerusalem.
Israeli authorities have repeatedly refused to release
footage from the checkpoint's security cameras.</p>
<p>The Haaretz newspaper described the decision in October
to drop the investigation, despite clear evidence that
Maram and Taha Abu Ismail posed no threat when they were
shot, as "an official licence to kill". </p>
<p>Amid the unconvincing defences offered by <span
id="ScMistake_86" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
legal team, one argument hit home: that many cases
similar to <span id="ScMistake_87" class="ScMistakes">
Azaria</span>'s had been closed, including an
investigation into an army colonel, Yisrael Shomer, who
was filmed shooting dead a fleeing Palestinian teenager
in 2015. <span id="ScMistake_88" class="ScMistakes">
Azaria</span>, said his <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Case-closed-against-IDF-Col-who-shot-dead-Palestinian-rock-thrower-450776"
target="_blank"> defence team</a>, was being singled
out. </p>
<p><span id="ScMistake_89" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
conviction is also likely to prove ineffective at
underscoring to Israeli soldiers the need to abide by
Israel's rules of engagement.</p>
<p>A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) in
September found that 65 percent of Israeli Jews backed <span
id="ScMistake_90" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
execution of Sharif. Among Israelis aged 18 to 24, when
many Israelis are serving as conscripts, <a
href="http://www.peaceindex.org/indexMonthEng.aspx?num=308"
target="_blank"> support for his actions </a>
rocketed to 84 percent. </p>
<p>The Israeli media has largely <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4902855,00.html"
target="_blank"> sided with <span id="ScMistake_91"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span></a>, presenting
him as "the child of us all". Two Israeli publications
even selected him as their "<a
href="https://972mag.com/the-camera-that-made-elor-azaria-man-of-the-year/122371/"
target="_blank">man of the year</a>". </p>
<p>"The attitude of the Israeli public was clear," Yedidia
Stern, a researcher at the IDI, told Al Jazeera. "They
thought, "We put him in a uniform, we gave him a gun and
we placed him in harm's way in the occupied territories.
He may not be a hero, but he is not a criminal either.
He is our boy."</p>
<p>The popular image of a callow teenager who momentarily
lost his bearings in the confusion of Hebron is hard to
sustain in the face of his known views. His social media
posts reveal a youth who vented ugly, rabidly anti-Arab
views even before he joined the army.</p>
<p>During the 2014 Gaza war, <span id="ScMistake_92"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria </span> called for every
Palestinian in Gaza to be massacred. He also declared
his support for the late Meir Kahane, a rabbi whose
anti-Arab Kach party was outlawed in 1994 after a
follower, Baruch Goldstein, shot 29 Palestinians in <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/02/remembering-ibrahimi-mosque-massacre-160225061709582.html"
target="_self"> Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque</a>.</p>
<p>During the trial, it emerged that <span
id="ScMistake_93" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>,
like many of the soldiers serving with him, had
befriended former Kach leaders among the settlers in
Hebron. Every Sabbath, he and other soldiers, including
senior commanders, would visit the home of Baruch
Marzel, a former disciple of Kahane, for lunch. </p>
<p> A video shows <span id="ScMistake_95"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>, after shooting
Sharif, walking over to smile with Marzel and shake
hands. </p>
<p>Other footage shows another settler, ambulance driver
Ofer Ohana, goading the soldiers to execute Sharif when
the Palestinian showed signs of life, after earlier
being critically wounded during a knife attack on a
checkpoint.</p>
<p>Ohana can be seen kicking a knife closer to Sharif
after his execution by <span id="ScMistake_96"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>, presumably to help
create a justification for the killing. </p>
<p>A report published this month by military prosecutors
found that it was routine for soldiers and settlers to
tamper with evidence at sites where Palestinians had
been shot. Efforts to investigate were often rendered
futile as a result. </p>
<p>Human Rights Watch has noted that, in the months before
the Hebron shooting, senior government ministers and
security officials had repeatedly called for a
"shoot-to-kill" policy <strong> </strong> against
Palestinian attackers, even when they <a
href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/01/02/israel/palestine-some-officials-backing-shoot-kill"
target="_blank"> posed no threat</a>. </p>
<p>Separately, both the Sephardic chief rabbi, Yitzhak
Yosef, and the army's chief rabbi, Eyal Karim, have
called for the execution of Palestinians suspected of
attacks.</p>
<p>But more significantly, senior military figures broke
ranks during the trial to voice support for
extrajudicial executions, indicating that officers in
the field may be regularly turning a blind eye to crimes
like <span id="ScMistake_97" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s.</p>
<p>Uzi Dayan, a former deputy chief of staff, testified in
<span id="ScMistake_98" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
defence. He declared that he had personally covered up
for his own soldiers when they killed Palestinians
without justification.</p>
<p>In one case he cited, his troops had shot dead five
Palestinians returning home from work. He had blocked an
investigation. Such matters should not be aired in
public, he added. </p>
<p>Speaking more generally about extrajudicial executions,
he said: "I've ordered to kill terrorists just because
they're terrorists, regardless of their condition,
whether they are dangerous or not." </p>
<p>Another general, Shmuel Zakai, who commanded Israeli
forces in Gaza, told the court he found <span
id="ScMistake_99" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
behaviour "reasonable". He said: "I did not see anything
unusual in this conduct." </p>
<p>Sari Bashi, HRW's advocacy director in Israel and
Palestine, told Al Jazeera: " <span id="ScMistake_100"
class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s actions didn't
take place in a vacuum. Senior politicians and security
officials effectively egged him on."</p>
<p>Touma-Suleiman pointed to the stark contrast between <span
id="ScMistake_101" class="ScMistakes"> Azaria</span>'s
trial and that of <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/israel-court-convicts-palestinian-boy-murder-attempt-160510092610426.html"
target="_self"> Ahmed Manasra</a>, a 13-year-old
Palestinian who was jailed for 12 years in an adult
prison in November. </p>
<p>An Israeli military court found the child guilty of
attempted murder, even though the judge accepted Manasra
had stabbed no one in an attack in Jerusalem in 2015.
His older cousin, who was shot dead at the scene, had
been responsible for stabbing two Israelis.</p>
<p>"Manasra is a child, but the military court system
dealt with him far more harshly than it has a soldier
like <span id="ScMistake_102" class="ScMistakes">
Azaria</span>," she said. "When the occupier is judge
and jury, there is no hope of equality before the law or
of justice."</p>
<p><span>Source:</span> <span>Al Jazeera</span></p>
<span id="article-topics"><a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/topics/regions/middleeast.html"
data-topic-name="Middle East"></a></span></div>
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