.החייל שירה בפצוע הפלסטיני בחברון הוא אלאור אזריה מרמלה והמפקד שלו–סגן אלוף דוד שפירא
UPDATE: French media report that Elor Azarya is a dual French-Israeli citizen. Interesting to note that Gilad Shalit is as well.
Yesterday two Palestinian youths attempted to stab an IDF soldier (this account is in Hebrew with some English added) in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron. The soldier was lightly wounded and treated at the scene. The two Palestinians were each wounded, one mortally. They both lay on the ground, without moving. Both were unarmed. The Palestinian who’d been wounded, Abd al-Fatah a-Sharif, lay on the ground near a group of settlers and soldiers. One of the settlers said to the soldiers: “This asshole here is still breathing.”
It goes without saying that a security gag order prohibits Israeli media from reporting the identities of the killer and his commander, which I will do below. I could not have reported this story or learned much of this information without the invaluable aid of many Israelis, who may not be named in order to protect them from the ravages of the national security state.
Still image of the moment of execution which show the murderer in the middle of the picture. He stands just behind his commanding officer (speaking on the phone). A bystander to the left covers his ears as the killer shoots at the wounded Palestinian, in the lower left of the picture.
An IDF soldier who was a medic in the unit and who had treated the wounded soldier, asked permission from his commanding officer to “finish off” the wounded Palestinian. Apparently the commander approved. The soldier walked to within six feet of the wounded Palestinian cocked his rifle and shot him. This practice is often called ‘confirming the kill’ in the IDF. Palestinian girls as young as 12 years-old have been executed in this fashion before. Last week, Bassam Massalha, after being wounded, was executed as video filmed his murder. In one of the earliest of such incidents in Jerusalem in 2002, the police commander, Mickey Levy, ordered one of his officers to execute a Palestinian, who had been captured and disarmed before he could detonate his suicide vest.
Images of the execution of Mahmoud Saleh, ordered by the amnesiac, Mickey Levy. You can see that when Salah is murdered he has no suicide vest. He is naked except for his underwear. There is no bomb. The next picture shows his dead body.
Mickey Levy is now a deputy minister and key member of the center-right Yesh Atid party. An Israeli security institute hosted a screening of the film, Wounded Land, about a meeting between a suicide bomber and the families of his victims at the hospital where both were brought after the attack. Levy appears to have forgotten his sordid past when he told the film audience this entirely mendacious version of the Jerusalem attack in which ordered a summary execution:
“Every time I hear that a terrorist has been “neutralized” I laugh. Because you can neutralize the danger, but never the terrorist. When there is intent to injure and the danger is imminent, you certainly may shoot to kill. But once the danger is past, the situation changes.”
Levy then raises this same 2002 incident. But he makes dramatic changes in the actual story which flatter him and deface the truth. He says that when he arrived on the scene there was a terrorist who had a suicide vest still strapped to his body with the button to activate it visible. But he was in handcuffs and on his knees and a soldier stood over his body. No suicide bomber would ever be in handcuffs while still strapped to his vest. The Palestinian attempted to roll onto his belly in order to activate the bomb. Levy supposedly then asked the sapper whether he could disable the bomb. His officer told him he couldn’t because the terrorist was moving. He then ordered another soldier to kill the terrorist with two bullets to the head.
These pictures of the same incident should refresh Levy and expose the lies he told his all to gullible audience. They show the alleged attacker arrested with no suicide vest in sight. There are policemen milling about and no one appears threatened by the possibility of a bomb exploding.
Many Palestinians are similarly executed by Israeli security forces, but few in as blatant a situation is these in broad daylight and on camera.
Back in Hebron, when the shooter returned to his commanding officer, he went through the formal rituals of confirming the use of his weapon and that was the end of it, they expected. Instead, a Palestinian activist had videotaped the entire incident. He gave the video to the Israeli human rights NGO, B’Tselem, which subsequently circulated the video far and wide, after submitting it to the military censor. (If anyone has access to the uncensored version, please be in touch.) It’s been reported by media outlets around the world, including the BBC and many others.
The videographer, Imad Abu Shamsiyah, is in hiding. Settlers surrounded his home, stoned it, and shouted: “Death to Imad.” Neither Israeli soldiers nor police intervened.
In this image, the murderer is treating the lightly wounded Israeli soldier. The killer’s name, Azarya, is written on his gunstrap. His commander, Lt. Col. David Shapira, stands next to him in a black helmet.
The IDF, as a result of the bad publicity, arrested the soldier. Lt Col Peter Lerner confirmed that the soldier killed the Palestinian, and that his commanding officer apparently approved the killing. However, there is no word that the commanding officer himself has been arrested or detained.
Astonishingly, the IDF has all of a sudden developed a moral conscience, decrying the soldier’s act. Claims gave been made that he shot the victim on his own initiative. If you didn’t know better you’d think this sort of thing had never happened in the IDF before.
Israeli Jews are in an uproar over the incident, not because they decry it, but because they consider Azarya a hero. Indeed, there is a separate video shot just after Azarya murders a-Sharif in which Kahanist former MK Baruch Marzel walks up to the killer and proudly shakes his hand.
Beit Shemesh municipality honors IDF killer, Elor Azarya
The City of Beit Shemesh is organizing an official municipal protest in defense of Azarya. A post to this effect graces the city website. It features his picture and full name, in direct violation of security gag orders. The text reads: “Beit Shemesh demonstrates support for the freeing of the Hero of Israel, IDF soldier Elor Azarya.” Since the announcement remains accessible at the site, clearly the security forces and IDF have refused to enforce the gag in this case, while the media still honors it. A most peculiar situation.
It should be noted that Beit Shemesh is the home of one of Israel’s noted Islamopobe bloggers, David Lange; and also the home of the Jewish Taliban, a sect which forces its women to wear Jewish versions of chadors. It’s also the city where Haredi men stoned an Orthodox woman whose clothing was deemed insufficiently modest and heckled a 12 year old schoolgirl for a similar offense. A city of true brotherly love!
There are cries against the IDF leadership for making the shooter a sacrificial lamb. On the popular London & Kirschenbaum Channel 10 TV show, a Makor Rishon (Sheldon Adelson’s pro-settler paper) reporter said the shooting wasn’t murder because a-Sharif “wasn’t a human being.” He went further to say that it couldn’t even be considered “killing.” Apparently, it’s somewhere along the lines of killing a fly. The journalist did concede however, that the worst it could be considered was “improper conduct.” This has to be the final nail in the coffin of Zion as a “Light unto the Nations.”
Further, one of the Magen David Adom ambulance drivers at the scene of the attack, Elimelech Karzen, whose crew refused treatment to both Palestinian attackers, justified his actions by claiming that on Purim (the incident happened that day) 75,000 Jews were slated for execution by “terrorists.” Therefore, “Jewish ethics” prohibit him from aiding any Palestinian terrorist who would take a Jewish life. What sort of religious ‘ethics’ approves allowing another human being to die? Is this a religion or a cult of hate?
Yesterday, I spent a great deal of time posting to Facebook and Twitter asking Israelis if they could help me identify the killer. Luckily, the Israeli far-right gossip forum, Rotter, has identified him along with pictures. He is Sgt. El-Or Azarya, a resident of the poor Israeli town of Ramleh, near Tel Aviv.
Images from Azarya’s Facebook page. On the upper right is a unit certificate of merit for being the unit’s top soldier
Other activists in Israel have helped further identifying him, finding Facebook accounts and photographs which document him before the execution. He is a devoted follower of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club. The most hardcore racist Beitar fans have formed a gangland-style fan club called La Famigilia. He’s also written “Kahane was right!” on his Facebook page.
Among the pages he’s Liked on Facebook are the far-right Kahanist, Baruch Marzel; the racist rapper, The Shadow, who advocated burning Palestinians alive on his Facebook page; the La Famiglia page; Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked; and Avigdor Lieberman.
It is highly unlikely that justice will be done in this incident. Normally, the IDF claims to investigate such incidents, does so, finds insufficient evidence to prosecute, and closes the case.
Azarya holding high Beitar Jerusalem fan scarf
Such a thing is about to happen in the case of a Black Hebrew IDF soldier, Toveet Radcliffe, who either committed suicide or was murdered at an Israeli Air Force base, two years ago. On March 27th, the Black Hebrew community in Dimona expects the IDF will close the case without either investigating it fully or charging anyone. As a result the community which suspect that she was murdered by someone unknown, will not get Justice. This is the way things go in the Israeli National Security State. To sign a petition asking Pres. Obama to intervene in this case, visit Change.org.
Lt. Col. David Shapira, commander of the Shimshon Battalion
We have identified Azarya’s commanding officers. They are Lt. Col. David Shapira of the Shimshon Battalion and his boss, Col. Yariv Ben Ezra of the Yehuda Division. Shapira appears to be the officer who approved the murder.
I’ve compared the picture above which shows Azarya’s commander standing next to the shooter. Compare him in that picture to the one of Lt. Col. David Shapira, and I believe they are the same man.
Shapira himself has executed Palestinians. In 2008, Shapira murdered a wounded terrorist who’d attacked the Rav Kook Yeshiva. He’d heard the shooting from his Jerusalem home and rushed to the building with his personal firearm. He ignored orders by the police, who told him not to enter. An armed yeshiva student had already shot the attacker twice in the head. The media accounts say Shapira encountered the wounded gunman on the premises and “confirmed that he was dead.” That sounds an awful lot like “confirming the kill” to me. Shapira was proclaimed a hero.
Shapira lives in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof. Ironically, it used to have a Palestinian name: Deir Yassin.
Yesterday, Azarya showed that he learned the lessons well that Shapira taught him. In fact, I can imagine Shapira rewarding Azaryah with an opportunity to make his first “kill” after a-Sharif was wounded on the ground.
The shooter later told investigators that he shot a-Sharif because he was “moving,” and was afraid he would detonate a suicide vest. The victim is seen clearly on the video and he has no suicide vest. Nor does his Shapira seem to sense danger as he stands near the wounded man speaking on the telephone.
Let no one think of this is a one-off aberration. Palestinians are executed in the same fashion virtually every day. Nor are these summary executions a product of Israeli policy over the past few months alone. Such murders go all the way back to the 2002 incident I described above. The murderers are rewarded for their callousness as Levy has been, by being a respected member of the Knesset.
Some of the killings are videotaped and some aren’t. The ones that are not videotaped escape the world’s notice, except in the Palestinian community. The ones that are videotaped elicit a small measure of attention in Israel and no attention outside. The lives that are so snuffed out aren’t worth much either to the world media or to Israelis. But once in a while, if circumstances are right, when there’s a videotape that captures all the bloody action in broad daylight, then the world takes notice.
I am publishing as much about this case as I can in order to expose not just this single murder, but all of the brutal illegal violence perpetrated by Israeli Security Forces against Palestinians.
“He probably has an explosive on him, pay attention. Until the bomb squad comes, nobody touches him.” See audio portion of video #3.
What also supports the soldier’s claim is the attacker’s choice of warm clothing on a day the weather was in the high 20’s Celsius (77-84 degrees Fahrenheit).
“The terrorist was wearing a coat or a sweater, and we’re well aware of the weather yesterday,” a CID representative said.’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4783059,00.html
Its funny how in your attempt to bash anything and anybody israeli, you forget that these arabs were trying to kill soldiers. Your so self righteous. ” those evil israeli murderers” lol. When someone tries to kill people, i have a real lack of sympathy for what happens to them..
For you, im sure your eyes lit up when you saw this story. You live for this stuff, anything to bash israel
Good work
Hi Barbar!
They were indeed trying to kill soldiers. Soldiers of an occupying army.
What kind of resistance would you approve of?
@ Moshe: How many soldiers have been killed in these attacks? Very few. How severely was the soldier wounded in this attack? Not very.
But the main point which you typically miss is that your nation’s refusal to address legitimate Palestinian grievance is what induces this violence. As long as you refuse to deal, they will try to kill you.
As for the rest of your comment, it’s pure trash and lies. You don’t have a clue what my feelings for Israel are.
@Bernie X: So you’re saying that the attacker’s dress code is what got him killed? If he’d worn shorts he’d have lived??? Let’s be sure to send a bulletin to all future Palestinian attackers noting this.
BTW, there hasn’t been an Palestinian attacker using a suicide vest in years. But nice try.
BS ! You can clearly see that he is wearing nothing, and if you look at these images as well as the others filmed from another angle (where you can see the other presumed attacker lying on the ground next to the ambulance killed by a bullet to his head too), explain to us how come soldiers as well as various settlers pass by close to him without any fear ?? If they think he wore a suicide belt.
To me what’s even more important in theses images than the killing itself: to see how the soldiers and the settlers just continue their daily business without even paying attention to the wounded lying on the ground, even after he’s executed, nobody cares. This is a sign of total dehumanization. And we’ve so may footages showing the same situation over and over again.
Not to speak about the fact that according to international law, a wounded should be treated, and we see more than one ambulance, but nobody simply cares about him.
This young man attacked a soldier of an army of occupation, Jean Moulin did so in France during WW2, and he’s considered a national hero. To me this young Palestinian is exactly the same, trying to defend his homeland from vicious settler thugs and a fascist genocidal army protectinh them.
And on a sidenote: Btselem has closed the comment section to this video now but I responded to some comments there yesterday. I’m worried to see how mostly Western antisemites use such video footage to dump their shit about “Jews”, and to see how many likes they get. The State of Israel and it’s disgusting behaviour is just “blessed bread” for such thugs, I really read things that I would have preferred not to read.
Moshe said:
“When someone tries to kill people, i have a real lack of sympathy for what happens to them..”
Thank you for that bit of confession. I suspect that “lack of sympathy” is code for general hatred of those who are the victims of Israel.
There has been some moral posturing by the IDF on this occasion (I understand that the soldier concerned was arrested) that I fear was triggered off by the fact that this video went viral on the internet. MK “Tamar Zandberg, praised the organization B’Tselem for distributing the video.“Without B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence we would have never known or seen,” Zandberg wrote on Twitter”
But the Jerusalem Post reported that the army, according to its own version of this all, had already showed its concern before the video went on the internet. Funny that the army personnel in the video showed an absolute indifference. A dog hit by a car would have elicited more concern. Nevertheless “hypocrisy is the homage vice pass to virtue”. Better that forced homage than none at all.
@Deir
” Jean Moulin did so in France during WW2, and he’s considered a national hero ”
@Richard
“How many soldiers have been killed in these attacks? ”
Captain Eilav Gelman (30)
Staff Seargent Benjamin Yaakovovich (19
Omri Levy (19)
Ziv Mizrahi (20)
Did Moulin knife to death or run over civilians? Most of these latest Jewish victims have been unarmed civilians.
“that vice PAYS to virtue”
I spoke specifically about this young man who was executed by a bullet to his head (so was the other presumed attacker by the way), You couldn’t miss that when you copied my sentence. Here’s what I wrote: “This young man attacked a soldier of an army of occupation, Jean Moulin did so in France during WW2, and he’s considered a national hero”.
It even seems that only his friend had a knife, but anyway. We all understand that you simply don’t care. But many in the rest of the world do, I’ve seen these images published and commented on MSM websites, and even the usual hasbaristas have a hard time defending it.
PS. And why don’t you stick to one pen name ?
What on earth is a Lt. Colonel doing on a street patrol? Is the IDF do top heavy that there is no room at HQ for all the senior officers?
[comment deleted: I don’t publish comments accusing Israelis, ZIonists or Palestinians of having “mental illness.”]
Not sure where this ‘religion’ thing fits in – there is clearly no God anywhere near Israel.
Zionism is a hateful ideology, from 19th century. Using Judaism to justify the massacre of Palestinians is a slap in the face to all anti-Zionist Jews.
Very informative post. Interesting how some commenters find the publishing of facts to be “anti-Israel”. If you knew you were in the right you’d be happy to happy to have facts disseminated surely?
I know you won’t care hearing this from me, but let me say unequivocally that the soldier should be tried and if convicted, punished to the fullest extent of the law. This is unacceptable, period.
But 2 questions:
1. Where do you get your information that he received the OK from his commander? Every report that I have seen indicated that he acted on his own. If he got such an order, that would be very grave.
2. As for other incidents, we don’t know what we don’t know, however the Palestinians have been caught lying about this. For example, in the incident involving the 2 boys who stabbed the 13 year old on a bicycle, Abbas publicly claimed that we executed the attackers. The videos clearly showed this was not the case. Only when confronted with the incontrovertible evidence did the Palestinians backtrack and claim he was “shot in cold blood”, which was not true either.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.680612
Interesting that the soldier’s sister tries to come up with an explanation.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/sister-of-hebron-soldier-hes-been-stabbed-in-the-back/
In the Netherlands the resistance also attacked German soldiers. As reprisal, in one case, the male population of 16 and older of an entire village was deported to concentration camps, and the farms burnt down (‘house demolition’). Very few survived. A brother of my grandmother was one of the deportees.
In the German controlled newspapers of that time, such attacks on solders were termed ‘terrorism’.
As Deir Yassin said, the perspective in Europe on such actions of the resistanceis is, in general, to see them as heroic (although also criticized for being ineffective and causing harm to the local population).
Israel does not go to these lengths yet, but is nevertheless treating such actions as if they were unprovoked terrorist attacks, deserving a totally brutal response. This is because Israeli’s suffer from the delusion that there is no occupation or oppression, and that they are morally lily-white. It is as if the whole country is detached from reality.
“An IDF soldier who was a medic in the unit and who had treated the wounded soldier, asked permission from his commanding officer to “finish off” the wounded Palestinian. Apparently the commander approved”
What do you base this on?
“An armed yeshiva student had already shot the attacker twice in the head. The media accounts say Shapira encountered the wounded gunman on the premises and “confirmed that he was dead.” That sounds an awful lot like “confirming the kill” to me. Shapira was proclaimed a hero.”
???
The article you link says he killed the terrorist in a face to face battle. How did you come up with terrorist being already wounded?
Did the terrorist in Merkaz Harav Kook also try to kill soldiers?
He attacked and killed students in a Yeshiva within Israel 1948 recognized borders.
Dear Moshe,
Your comment is most timely. Tomorrow, Easter Sunday in the Christian world, there will be a HUGE celebration in Dublin, Ireland, of the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1916, an armed rebellion which started the armed struggle against British rule in Ireland. This of course involved “killing soldiers”.
The people and government of Ireland will quite rightly honour and celebrate the men and women who rose up against the occupying power and who, through their sacrifices, made possible not alone Irish freedom but showed the way to other occupied countries.
No wonder Ireland is the most pro-Palestinian country of Europe. We know what a brutal military occupation is like.
I wonder whether the Israeli ambassador will be present at the celebration of “terrorists”. If so he should have a rather red face.
@”Kack: Er, not quite. Rav Kook’s theology served as the inspiration for the settler movement & perfectly epitomizes Jewish exceptionalism. Where do the settler officers come from who execute this philosophy in the Territories on a day to day basis? Merkaz Harav of course.
@”Jack:” Read the Wikipedia article. Dadon was first to encounter him & put 2 bullets in his head. Ergo, he was dying when Shapira “confirmed the kill.”
Richarrd, my views on your feelings for israel come from the fact you find every which way to find evrything that is wrong with israel, while at the same time barely mentioning the other side. I dont know how else to see your views. Ive never seen you write anything positive about israel. How am i mistaken as to your obvious vendetta?
I dont have the exact number, but i think there has been between 20-40 israelis killed in the last six months by these various attacks. Dont try to brush them off as harmless things
@ Yehuda: Absolutely untrue. I value when Israelis concede errors and sins in the ways of their security forces. But I don’t understand why you don’t concede that these crimes are routine & even SOP.
As I’ve already said in this thread. A subordinate doesn’t take a gun and shoot someone standing 3 ft from his commanding officer who, btw, is standing talking on the phone & doesn’t flinch or protest. That simply doesn’t happen unless the commander has approved. What subordinate in his right mind would do such a thing, defying his commander only feet away from him? Unless he wanted to end up in prison. It’s a shame if there’s any punishment (there likely won’t be) Azarya will be the only one punished.
Palestinians don’t have to “lie” [sic] about this (& I reject your characterization of the previous incidents). THere’s a video documenting the entire execution. All of your previous incidents of purported lying are irrelevant in this case.
@ Bernie: OMG, four Israeli soldiers out of over 200 dead were IDF! How many Palestinian civilians complete uninvolved in militancy have been killed in this Intifada? 20 times as many as IDF soldiers died. Are you shedding any crocodile tears for them?? Nah.
For your information, the French Resistance did kill civilians, esp. those accused of collaborating with the Nazis.
Moshe said:
“Richarrd .. you find every which way to find evrything that is wrong with israel, while at the same time barely mentioning the other side”
Talking of “two sides” as if these were somehow morally equivalent is the misleading trope with which most of the mainstream media have muddied their reporting on Israel’s depredations – if they weren’t outright pro-Israel which has been more generally the case.
I am glad that shollyD brought up the Irish Easter uprising. The occupation of Ireland by the British provides perhaps the most brutal example of British colonialism. In many ways it is comparable to the Israeli occupation though the latter has not lasted as long yet (and heaven forbid it will).
I am sure that the British papers of the time also talked about “terrorism”. And so indeed did part of the British influenced Irish Press (particularly the Irish Times which was baying for the “rebels’” blood) The New York Times played apparently the same dubious role it does now as far as the Israeli occupation is concerned:
“On 29 April, a characteristically sensationalist and pro-British New York Times editorial mocked what it believed was an ingrained Irish passion for freedom. ‘What these present rebels want is not to be free of England. They pursue an ideal of freedom. England is the symbol of restraint. If it were not England, it might be a King. If it were not a King, it might be fairies that go about in Ireland, assuming fantastic shapes, to frighten people and make them do all the things they do not want to do.’”
When it is crystal clear who is the oppressor and who are the oppressed, talking about “two sides” is ridiculous. And as to your complaint about Richard never saying anything positive about Israel: why should he? Praising and defending the oppressor? There are plenty of hasbarists doing so and they are all over the internet. Google on any topic having to do with these matters and you get pages and pages of hasbara first. “The occupation of the American mind” (to quote the title of that movie) and, actually, the “Western mind” in general has been a very thorough affair and it is ongoing. Pushing back against that is in many ways a Sisyphus-job and I laud Richard for his indefatability on it.
@Richard –“All of your previous incidents of purported lying are irrelevant in this case.”
What do you mean? It is you who asserted that Palestinians are being executed “every day”. With Israel you conclude they’re lying and covering up, because of supposed documented past cases, while regarding Palestinians, previous misrepresentations are “irrelevant”? Basically your claiming that only Palestinian testimony is acceptable.