Israel’s president Saturday pardoned the combat medic who shot dead at close range a badly wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank a decade ago.
On Saturday, Israel’s hard-line Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir in a statement said that “canceling the criminal record of someone who killed a terrorist makes me emotional and very happy. Elor Azaria’s conviction for manslaughter and his release after serving two-thirds of his sentence drew enormous attention in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish men. Because that’s how I needed to act, in his first interview after his release, Azaria said “I would act exactly the same,.
Some Palestinians and human rights groups had described Azaria’s 18-month sentence as far too lenient.
President Isaac Herzog in a statement said he acted on the recommendation of Defence Minister Israel Katz and cited the time that had passed, and the spirit of the approaching Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, as among the factors in his decision. Katz in a separate statement called it a “right, humane, and fitting decision” and said Azaria had been in a “complex operational mission. Herzog’s statement on Saturday said his decision “does not constitute a reassessment of the case.”
