“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.” So read the Facebook posting by Michael Sfard, an attorney and international law expert who represents several Israeli human rights organizations, concerning the soldier accused of murdering an incapacitated Palestinian man on March 24. On video shot by a B’Tselem activist, the soldier is seen shooting the man in the head as he lay on the road after earlier trying to stab Israeli soldiers. The video sparked a public outcry.
The witness to whom Sfard is referring is any one of a long line of government ministers and Knesset members who have been relaying a clear message to the citizens of Israel since the start of the latest wave of terror last fall: Attackers bearing knives must be killed. Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, for example, told radio interviewer Nissim Mishal in October 2015 that Israel must confront terror attacks “with zero tolerance.” Lapid said, “You see someone with a knife, you see someone with a screwdriver, you should shoot to kill, don't think twice. There’s total backing [for this] from the legal and political system."
