The trial of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Elor Azaria is underway. In March, Azaria shot to death Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who lay on the ground wounded and incapacitated after he stabbed another IDF soldier in Hebron. In testimony on the witness stand July 24, Azaria said the scene of the incident had not been managed properly following the attack. “You can see civilians walking around … photographers entering the zone … in what should have been a closed military area.” Azaria described his commanders as complacent. During his three days of testimony, Azaria also attacked the senior command echelon of the IDF and claimed, “They threw me to the dogs because of their fear of the press, the media.”
We cannot ignore the fact that Azaria did not operate in a vacuum. The public atmosphere that existed in Israel encouraged shooting to kill with regard to every terrorist with a knife, without holding anyone accountable. A series of politicians from the right and the center contributed a great deal to the creation of this atmosphere. After the Azaria incident, I wrote an article for Al-Monitor in which I quoted the words of a lawyer who specializes in human rights, Michael Sfard: “If I were the defense attorney for the young man from Hebron, I know who I would have summoned as my first witness claiming that the responsibility for the killing cannot be borne solely by an 18-year-old boy.” Sfard was referring to the words uttered by Yesh Atid Chair Yair Lapid in October 2015 at the beginning of the current terror wave: “With zero tolerance. You see someone with a knife, you see someone with a screwdriver, you should shoot to kill, don't think twice."