ALBAWABA - Elor Azaria, IDF combat medic who executed a badly wounded Palestinian man that had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank in 2017 was pardoned by the Israeli president from his charges of manslaughter.
After being charged for manslaughter in 2017, Elor was released after serving two-thirds of his 18-month sentence which drew severe controversy in Israel. After his release he stated he would “act exactly the same, because that’s how I needed to act”.
The execution happened when Elor approached Abdel Fattah al-Sharif as he lay unarmed bleeding out on the ground and put a bullet in his head; this happened after Abdel Fattah stabbed an IDF soldier in Hebron. The execution was captured on a mobile phone video.
Israeli president wipes Elor Azaria’s criminal record, filmed executing wounded Palestinian Abdel Fattah al-Sharif as he lay on the ground pic.twitter.com/k7ojopaXde
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said the pardon came on the recommendation of Israeli defense minister Israel Katz citing that a long time has passed and that Yom Kippur – the Jewish Day of Atonement – was approaching.
Curiously, the controversy over the case led the defense minister at the time, Moshe Ya’alon, to resign.
The president’s office noted that Elor had “expressed his sorrow” in the pardon request. The statement, however, also noted that in an earlier request, he called his gunshot an “operational error”.
Katz called the pardon a “right, humane and fitting decision” and said that Elor had been on a “complex operational mission”.
Surprisingly, however, Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir sent a letter to Katz saying the pardon should not be granted, Israeli media reported, marking a rare case in which an Israeli military court ruled against a soldier for deadly action taken in the field.
Israel’s hardline national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir swung the other way, saying in a statement on Saturday that “cancelling the criminal record of someone who killed a terrorist makes me emotional and very happy”.
Pshemaf Choiaqo is a digital marketer with a passion for media, style, and presentation.
He enjoys researching unorthodox and nonconventional subjects almost as much as he enjoys writing about them.
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