Israeli Army Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday sent an appeal to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin urging him to grant pardon to IOF soldier Elor Azaria who is currently serving a 14-month prison sentence for deliberately killing a Palestinian injured detainee in February 2017.
“I would like to ask that you accept Elor Azaria’s request and grant a pardon for the remaining period of his prison term” Lieberman wrote in a letter to Rivlin calling the shooting of the Palestinian “an operational mistake”.
“People with much more senior positions than Azaria have been pardoned for acts similar or even more severe than Azaria” Lieberman wrote.
“We must put an end to the affair that shook the Israeli society and at this time show leniency and mercy to the soldier” he urged.
“We send our daughters and sons to defend the security of the state” he wrote “placing them in complex situations unlike any other in the world and demanding that they act courageously resolutely professionally and morally.”
Azaria was convicted of “manslaughter” after he was caught on film in March 2016 shooting the Palestinian young man Abdel Fattah al-Sharif as he lay immobilized on the ground.
