An Israeli soldier convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a military court in the shooting of a Palestinian was sentenced today to 18 months in prison. On March 24, 2016, Elor Azaria was deployed to Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. In an encounter between two Palestinians & Israeli soldiers, one Palestinian was shot dead & an Israeli soldier & the other Palestinian, 21-year-old Abd Elfatah Ashareef, were wounded. There is no need to play stupid & accept the accusation that the injured soldier was stabbed & wounded by the two Palestinians.

As several soldiers stood around watching the wounded soldier be put into an ambulance, Abd Elfatah Ashareef laid motionless on the ground nearby for several minutes, completely unattended by medics although obviously wounded. Out of the blue, Azaria walked up & shot him in the head, saying to a nearby soldier “He deserves to die.” That is called extrajudicial execution.

Despite giving Azaria such a lenient sentence the court said he had taken upon himself to be both judge & executioner. That is called impunity. They also said he had not expressed regret for his crime. That is called sociopathology, the psychological disorder derived from impunity.

The solidarity response to this monstrous miscarriage of justice is first to tell the world about the character of Israeli justice for Palestinians, because although Palestinians are not taught to hate, they have every reason to do so, & second to build the hell out of the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions movement (BDS). Buy nothing with the barcode beginning 729.

On the left is Elor Azaria with his mother at the sentencing hearing in Tel Aviv where he is already showing the symptoms of impunity.

On the right is Abd Elfatah Ashareef. May he Rest In Peace.

(Photo of Azaria by Jim Hollander/Pool/Reuters)