Israeli military battles public furor

Decision to prosecute a soldier who killed Palestinian attacker has opened a rare rift.

Send this clipping to somebody

Transcribed from the clipping

TEL AVIV — Israel's military ranks among the most popular institutions in the country, winning approval ratings far outpacing the courts and the parliament. Popularity of the military chief of staff routinely exceeds that of the prime minister.

But in the days since an Israeli soldier shot to death a Palestinian knife assailant in the West Bank, a rare rift has opened up between army top brass and public opinion.

A decision to pursue a court-martial against the soldier, with an expected charge of manslaughter, has spurred widespread criticism of military leaders on social networks, in public opinion polls and in the streets.

Many Israelis at solidarity protests are hailing the soldier as a national hero, while others sympathize with a conscript perceived to have acted instinctively in the throes of a dangerous situation — a claim rejected by military prosecutors and the chief of staff.

"I think the army abandoned him," said Reuven Lavi, 50, the owner of a butcher shop in the city of Ramle, southeast of Tel Aviv. "He's serving the country. Even if he made a mistake, he's not a criminal.

He's a soldier doing his duty." The military prosecutor has said in hearings that the soldier opened fire even though the Palestinian attacker, Abdel Fattah Sharif, was no longer deemed a threat. Sharif had stabbed another soldier and then was shot and apparently incapacitated.

He was lying on the ground, barely moving, when the soldier approached him and appeared to shoot him in the head. The defense has argued that the soldier feared that Sharif was wearing an explosives belt and panicked, an account the prosecution has dismissed as not credible. No such belt was found.

The shooting in the city of Hebron was caught on video by a Palestinian activist, who sent it to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. It renewed Palestinian accusations that Israel has a policy of summary execution, and prompted a protest from the United Nations envoy. [...] Chief of Staff Lt. Gen.

Gadi Eisenkot, who had warned against disproportionate force against Palestinian knife attackers even before the Hebron shooting, sent an open letter to soldiers last week stressing the value of human dignity and "purity of arms." "The shots violated the professional norms and morals expected of an Israel Defense Force soldier," Eisenkot told officer cadets Tuesday, according to the Israeli media.

"There is an escalation ... that we have to win. But on the other hand, there's an understanding that if we don't establish our norms as a military, we will lose."

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping. Filed under the archive’s spelling; the page prints “The Los Angeles Times”.

Context added by this archive

This is the one piece of American staff news copy in the batch that puts the word "disproportionate" next to Eisenkot's name — and it is inverted: he is the man who "had warned against disproportionate force." Nothing on the page connects him to the 2008 Dahiya statement.

Photo caption: "DEMONSTRATORS gather outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem to demand the release of a soldier held in the killing of a Palestinian knife assailant. 'I think the army abandoned him,' said one Israeli supporter." Credit: ABIR SULTAN European Pressphoto Agency.

Story ends "Mitnick is a special correspondent." Also quoted: philosophy professor Asa Kasher, negotiator Saeb Erekat, Ehud Eliran of the University of Haifa, and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon.

Cite this clipping

"Israeli military battles public furor," Los Angeles Times, 8 April 2016. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2016-022. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2016-022