An Israeli soldier who shot dead a wounded Palestinian assailant as he lay on the ground posing no apparent threat was convicted of manslaughter Wednesday after a trial that deeply divided the country.
\nThe soldier, Elor Azaria, had been on trial in a military court since May, with right-wing politicians defending him despite top army brass harshly condemning his actions.
\nSentencing is expected at a later date. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
\nJudge Colonel Maya Heller spent more than two and a half hours reading out the decision, sharply criticizing the arguments of Azaria\u2019s lawyers.
\nOn behalf of the three-judge panel, Heller said there was no reason for Azaria to open fire since the Palestinian was posing no threat.
\nShe called Azaria\u2019s testimony \u201cevolving and evasive.\u201d
\nAzaria\u2019s demeanor drastically changed as the judge read the verdict.
\nDressed in a green army uniform, he had entered the courtroom smiling, with family members and supporters applauding him.
\nBut he and his family later looked shaken as the judge spoke, with his mother and father huddling together.
\nAfter the verdict, his mother yelled: \u201cYou should be ashamed of yourselves\u201d.
\nAzaria was 19 at the time of the killing in March 2016 in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu: Soldier convicted of manslaughter should be pardoned<\/strong> The decision to court-martial Azaria has stirred public controversy in Israel from the start, with right-wing politicians calling after the verdict on President Reuven Rivlin to pardon the 20-year-old defendant.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a difficult and painful day – first and foremost for Elor, his family, Israel\u2019s soldiers, many citizens and parents of soldiers, among them me … I support granting a pardon to Elor Azaria,\u201d Netanyahu said on his Facebook page.<\/p>\n Protests outside<\/strong> Polarized public<\/strong> Source: Alarabiya<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Israeli soldier who shot dead a wounded Palestinian assailant as he lay on the ground posing no apparent threat was convicted of manslaughter Wednesday after a trial that deeply divided the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c59-islamic-world"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he supported pardoning a young Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter for shooting dead a Palestinian assailant lying wounded and motionless on the ground in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
\nIn a sign of the tensions surrounding the case, dozens of protesters scuffled with police Wednesday as they gathered outside Israel\u2019s military headquarters in Tel Aviv, where the verdict was announced.
\nThey held a sign that read: \u201cPeople of Israel do not abandon a soldier in the battlefield.\u201d
\nThe shooting set off intense political debate, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having earlier called Azaria\u2019s father to express his sympathy.
\nOthers on the right have called for him to be pardoned in an extraordinary public rift between politicians and the country\u2019s military.
\nBefore he became Israeli defense minister in May, Avigdor Lieberman was among those showing strong support for Azaria, including attending one of his court appearances.
\nHe has since backed away from his earlier stance and, immediately after Wednesday\u2019s verdict, said he disagreed with the decision but that it must be respected.
\n\u201cI call on politicians to stop attacking the security establishment and the army and its chief of staff,\u201d he said.
\nOthers however from what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israeli history maintained their hardline position.
\n\u201cHe\u2019s our son, our child,\u201d Culture Minister Miri Regev told Israeli television, saying Azaria should not have faced a criminal trial.
\nThe case burst into public view when a video of the March 24 shooting emerged and spread widely online.
\nThe video showed Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another man after stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier minutes earlier, according to the army.
\nAzaria then shoots him again in the head without any apparent provocation.
\nHis lawyers argued the soldier may have thought the Palestinian was wearing explosives, but others said he had already been checked for a suicide belt and no one in the video appears to be acting with caution toward him.<\/p>\n
\nMilitary chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot has spoken out against the politicization of the case, warning it could badly harm the army.
\nHe said rules on when to open fire must be followed.
\nThe case galvanized the Israeli public, and television and radio stations interrupted their broadcasts to carry live coverage of the verdict.
\nIt had been portrayed by some as a test of whether Israel\u2019s military could prosecute one of its own, though many Palestinians dismissed it, arguing Azaria was only taken to trial because of the video.
\nThe military has said it began investigating before the release of the video, filmed by a Palestinian volunteer for Israeli rights group B\u2019Tselem.
\nThe shooting came against the backdrop of a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks that erupted in October 2015.
\nIsraeli security forces have been accused of excessive force in certain other cases as well, though authorities say officers act appropriately to protect themselves and civilians.
\nMost of the attacks were by lone-wolf assailants, many of them young people, including teenagers. Israel\u2019s military has said it believes a significant number of them were essentially on suicide missions.
\nThe violence has greatly subsided in recent months.<\/p>\n