P2JW053000-4-A00700-1--------NS
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
* * * *
Wednesday, February 22, 2017 | A7
NY
WORLD NEWS
Israeli Soldier Jailed for Killing Palestinian
Sergeant is sentenced
to 18 months in
shooting death of
disarmed attacker
TEL AVIV—An Israeli soldier
was sentenced by a military
court to 18 months in prison
for the shooting death of a disarmed Palestinian attacker,
capping a trial that laid bare
deep divisions in Israel about
the role and responsibilities of
soldiers serving in the occupied territories.
The court on Tuesday also
demoted the soldier, Sgt. Elor
Azaria, to private, following his
conviction last month of manslaughter in the death last year
of Abdul Fattah Sharif in the
West Bank city of Hebron.
After Mr. Azaria’s sentence
was read, members of his family in the courtroom sang Israel’s national anthem.
A manslaughter conviction
in Israel carries a maximum jail
sentence of 20 years, but many
had predicted Mr. Azaria would
receive a shorter jail term. His
lawyers are expected to appeal
the sentence, amid demands by
right-wing politicians that Israeli President Reuven Rivlin
grant the soldier a pardon.
The March 24, 2016, shooting of Mr. Sharif encapsulated
JIM HOLLANDER/PRESS POOL
BY RORY JONES
Israeli soldier Elor Azaria was embraced by his mother at the start of his sentencing hearing at a military court in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
the dilemmas, confusion and
uncertainty that often face Israeli soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where they
are deployed to stem violence,
maintain control and protect
about 400,000 Jewish Israeli
settlers living among some 2.9
million Palestinians.
Amid a monthslong wave
of Palestinian attacks against
soldiers and Jewish Israelis in
the West Bank, Mr. Sharif and
another Palestinian stabbed
and wounded an Israeli soldier on the streets of in He-
bron, and were then shot by
Israeli troops.
While his fellow attacker
soon died, the 21-year-old Mr.
Sharif lay wounded and incapacitated on the road, and Mr.
Azaria, then 19 years old, fired
into his head.
The circumstances of the
shooting—whether Mr. Azaria
was justified in pulling the
trigger—were the focus of a
trial that riveted the country.
Liberal politicians and senior officials of the Israeli military said Mr. Azaria’s actions
ran counter to the values of
what has been the country’s
most revered institution.
Pitted against them were
many in the Israeli public and
parliament who said soldiers
operating under difficult conditions in the territories can’t
and shouldn’t be held to so
high a standard of restraint.
Inside the courtroom, Mr.
Azaria’s lawyers argued that he
believed Mr. Sharif might have
an explosive device and was
still dangerous. The prosecutor
said he shot Mr. Sharif out of a
desire for revenge.
The court agreed with the
prosecution, ruling that Mr.
Sharif posed no threat before
he was killed. Judge Col. Maya
Heller called Mr. Azaria’s testimony “evolving and evasive,”
and said his motive for shooting “was that he felt the terrorist deserved to die.”
Reactions to Mr. Azaria’s
sentence on Tuesday showed
the issues disputed in his trial
were far from resolved.
“Elor must not sit in jail, or
we will all pay the price,”
tweeted Naftali Bennett, leader
of the right-wing Jewish Home
party, who called for a pardon
for Mr. Azaria.
Yariv Oppenheimer, a board
member of the nongovernmental organization Peace Now,
tweeted that the sentence was
“an embarrassing and lenient
punishment.”
BY HABIB KHAN TOTAKHIL
AND EHSANULLAH AMIRI
KABUL—Afghan security
forces blockaded the country’s
vice president inside his residence in the capital on Tuesday in a bid to compel him to
cooperate with an investigation into charges that he and
nine bodyguards kidnapped
and sexually assaulted a rival.
The move by Afghan authorities against the vice pres-
ident, Abdul Rashid Dostum,
raised fears of violence between government security
forces and Mr. Dostum’s personal militia in the capital,
which numbers up to 1,000
heavily armed men.
In what has become a test
of the government’s pledge to
hold powerful politicians accountable, Mr. Dostum has refused an order by the attorney
general to appear along with
nine of his bodyguards for
questioning involving the alleged assault of the rival, Ahmad Ishchi.
Mr. Ishchi, a former governor of Jowzjan province, says
he was held hostage, beaten
and raped by the vice president with the barrel of an
AK-47 in November at a game
of buzkashi, Afghanistan’s national sport. The assault took
place in Jowzjan, he says.
An Afghan government
spokesman said Mr. Dostum
would be prevented from traveling to his office less than a
mile away in the capital until
the investigation into Mr. Ishchi’s allegations is completed.
Mr. Dostum’s chief of staff,
Bashir Ahmad Farahmand, said
the decision by authorities to
surround the vice president’s
home was a surprise. He said
he wasn’t certain if the Afghan
forces involved in the blockade
were “providing security or
disrupting security.”
MUSTAFA BAG/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
Afghan Official Blockaded in Assault Case
Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum during a military operation
in 2015. Security forces have blockaded him at home in Kabul.