Why three videos of a West Bank shooting are roiling Israel

BY BEN SALES / JTA

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TEL AVIV — It began as an all-too-common story: A Palestinian assailant in the contested West Bank city of Hebron stabs and wounds an Israeli soldier. Israeli forces shoot him dead. But hours after the incident Thursday, a political and moral firestorm engulfed Israel. A video showed a soldier executing the already incapacitated attacker.

One day later, after condemnation from the highest reaches of Israel's government, a second video appeared to show that the attacker might have still posed a threat. In response, the IDF released results of an investigation indicating the soldier was at fault. Then came a third video showing the soldier shaking hands with a far-right activist after the incident.

The dueling views of the clash are the latest installments in a running debate over how far Israeli soldiers should go in responding to the ongoing wave of Palestinian knife attacks.

The incident has raised questions about the Israel Defense Forces' rules of engagement, how the army should treat soldiers who break protocol and — within Israeli society — the limits of criticism of the IDF. [...] Since September, more than 200 Palestinian stabbing attacks have left 34 Israelis dead and hundreds wounded, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry.

Israeli forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians, most of them attackers, according to news reports. Centrist and right-wing Israeli politicians, including Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, have encouraged soldiers to kill attackers on the spot. The U.S.

State Department, as well as Sweden's Foreign Ministry, have criticized Israel for a disproportionate response to the attacks.

Even IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot told high-schoolers last month that he "doesn't want a soldier emptying a magazine on a girl carrying scissors," while Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the next day, "We need to know how to win and still remain human." Eizenkot, in turn, was criticized for not defending his soldiers.

How this transcription was made

Date confirmed on the page (folio). Filed under the archive’s spelling; the page prints “St Louis Jewish Light”.

Context added by this archive

Folio reads "Visit WWW.STLJEWISHLIGHT.COM | ST. LOUIS JEWISH LIGHT | MARCH 30, 2016 | 5" — date agrees with Maria's label. Photo caption: "Israeli soldiers removing the body of a Palestinian man who stabbed a soldier in the West Bank city of Hebron on March 24." Photo: Wissam Hashlamon/Flash 90.

The story runs under three bold crossheads: "A video showed an Israeli soldier killing an already incapacitated attacker.", "Right-wing Israelis are defending the soldier and say the attacker may have still posed a threat.", and "The video comes amid criticism of Israel's response to a wave of stabbing attacks." Also quoted: IDF spokesman Brig. Gen.

Moti Almoz, and former Deputy Foreign Minister Yehuda Ben Meir of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, who told JTA "99.9 percent" of IDF actions are appropriate and "If everyone does whatever they think, everything will fall apart." Note the paper reports 34 Israelis dead and more than 200 Palestinians killed in the same paragraph and calls the latter "most of them attackers, according to news reports" — the Israeli figure is sourced to a ministry, the Palestinian figure to "news reports".

Cite this clipping

"Why three videos of a West Bank shooting are roiling Israel," St. Louis Jewish Light, 30 March 2016, p. 5. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2016-024. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2016-024