Israeli soldier gets only 18-month jail for killing Palestinian

TEL AVIV — An Israeli soldier who shot dead an incapacitated Palestinian in the occupied West Bank was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 months in jail. A military court last month convicted Sergeant Elor Azaria of manslaughter, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years› imprisonment, over the March 2016 incident in the town of Hebron. The three-judge panel ruled there was no reason for Azaria to open fire since Sharif was posing no threat. The March 2016 shooting in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron was caught on video and spread widely online. It showed Sharif, 21, lying on the ground, shot along with another Palestinian. Azaria then shoots him again in the head without any apparent provocation. Azaria says he feared Sharif was wearing an explosive belt and could blow himself up, taking nearby soldiers and onlookers with him. The claim was rejected by the judges. The trial opened last May at a military courtroom in Tel Aviv›s Jaffa district but later moved inside the tightly-guarded military headquarters complex in central Tel Aviv. Police have made arrests over online death threats against a judge and other officials and the army has assigned bodyguards to the three judges who convicted Azaria. Another man was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence against armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, who ordered the prosecution of Azaria, during a rowdy protest immediately following the verdict. Police are prepared for fresh protests following the sentencing, spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP on Monday night. “Police are ready for any exceptional incident,” she said. “Police are prepared for any scenario, anywhere in the country.” The case has stirred controversy and rocked Israeli politics, with some on the right defending the soldier, a French-Israeli national. The shooting came against the backdrop of a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks that erupted in October 2015. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he favors a pardon for Azaria and called his father to express his sympathy. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the nationalist Jewish Home party, has also urged clemency. “This soldier should not spend a single day in prison. If he is found guilty, he should immediately be pardoned,” he said in a radio interview in October. A poll by pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom found that around 70 percent of Israelis favor a pardon for Azaria. The dead Palestinian›s father, Yusri Al-Sharif, says Azaria deserves a life sentence. “But Israel is trying its own son, so there is a possibility it will be lenient,” he said following the guilty verdict last month. — Agencies