Published: 1 October 2016
Last updated: 4 March 2024
What happened in Hebron six months ago was not an aberration. It was an inevitable outcome of the occupation itself. An IDF soldier shoots a wounded Palestinian terrorist and is detained and tried. His guilt or innocence will reveal how Israel—after five decades of military control—is dealing with its society becoming more intolerant, more dangerous, and more violent. While there is no single causal link between the occupation and the intensifying culture of violence, the correlating factors are nevertheless too powerful to ignore. Trying to continually control a foreign people through military means is national suicide.
And see:
In cold blood: Elor Azaria and the case for killing Palestinians – Meron Rapoport – Middle East Eye 26.09.16
While trying to prove that Azaria pulled the trigger not out of a desire to kill al-Sharif, but because he felt threatened, the defence, at the same time, is doing its best to show that Azaria's conduct – shooting a wounded Palestinian suspected of ‘terrorism’ – is the norm among Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. The popular support given to Azaria and the readiness of retired generals such as Uzi Dayan to defend him reflect just how far Israeli society has gone.
Why criticism from former PM Barak rattles Netanyahu – Ben Caspit – Al-Monitor 28.09.16
Netanyahu made an embarrassing and revealing slip of the tongue in interviews he gave to Israeli television Sept. 24. When asked why he had called the family of Elor Azaria, although the soldier is on trial for manslaughter over the Hebron shooting, Netanyahu compared the call to any call he would make to a bereaved family that had lost a son in battle. Barak’s tweeted comment on that was excoriating.
Is gratuitous killing now more acceptable? April 2, 2016
‘Some Israelis think Jews are people but Arabs aren’t, so you can do anything to them. And some think it’s a mitzvah to kill Arabs…’ A cabinet discussion 66 years ago contrasts disturbingly with recent very different cabinet discussion about a soldier who killed a wounded Palestinian terrorist in Hebron after he no longer posed a threat.
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