The military court today sentenced Israeli soldier Elor Azaria to 18 months in prison for manslaughter in the killing of terrorist Abed a-Shariff on March 24, 2016 in Hebron. He was also given a year's probation.
The court's sentence was the majority opinion. One judge, whose name was not mentioned, wanted a more severe sentence - 30-60 months in prison.
The Court rejected the view of the military prosecutor's office, which wanted Azaria sentenced to 3-5 years in prison. Azaria's lawyers argued that he should not have been sentenced to prison, given the special circumstances of the case.
The defense is considering an appeal against the sentence. Azaria's lawyers have asked to delay his prison term, which Azaria is due to begin serving on March 5.
Demonstrators outside the courthouse protested the sentencing of Azaria to prison. "A disgrace, a disgrace, we won't accept anything except for a full acquittal. If you don't give back the boy, we'll overturn the country," they shouted.
Considerations for a more lenient punishment
The military court judges said that they took Azaria's previous good military record as an outstanding soldier and the severe consequences of the court case for Azaria and his family into account in determining his sentence. They also stated that it had been asserted that Azaria was suffering from post-trauma, and had met with a mental health officer.
The military court added that one consideration in the lenient sentence had been that Azaria's act was committed in a hostile theater in which a terrorist attack had previously taken place, and that a warning of an additional terrorist attack had been issued.
The judges rejected any connection between the behavior of the IDF command and Azaria's decision to shoot the wounded terrorist.
The judges ruled that at the stage at which senior parties had commented on the case, the military investigation was just beginning, and they should have waited until the picture became clear. "Labeling Azariya's act as detrimental to IDF values (by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and former Minister of Defense Moshe Ya'alon, among others, C.M.) before the end of the investigation was liable to damage the investigation, even though no such damage occurred," the Court wrote.
The judges further wrote that one consideration in Azaria's favor was that it was the first operational event in which he had taken part, and the first in which he had been called on to treat a wounded soldier. Judge Heller noted that it took place in a hostile theater following a terrorist attack, with warnings of terrorist attacks in the background. The judges took into account that Azaria had not been issued orders about what to do in the theater.
The judges rebuked the commanders of the Kfir brigade in which Azaria served for not visiting him when he was under arrest for 10 months at the Nachsonim base, and said that they were expected to behave differently.
"Damage to the purity of arms"
On the other hand, the judges wrote, "Azaria's act is very serious. He violated orders for shooting, misused force and the authority given for an unacceptable purpose… The accused caused the death of the terrorist, let it not be forgotten."
According to the Court, "Azaria's actions damaged social values, above all the supreme value of the holiness of life and the purity of arms so holy to the IDF, which we must defend in order to strengthen the moral resilience of Israeli society, especially the army."
The judges mentioned that Azaria had attacked a prisoner with the deadly force of his weapon. "We remind everyone that in Israel, the army is a people's army. It encompasses all sections of the public. Every young woman and man receives a weapon for the purpose of doing their duty… there is no disputing that only a moral army can defeat its enemies," they wrote.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on February 21, 2017
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