Hebron soldier welcomed home to celebrations
Sgt. Elor Azaria, who shot dead a neutralized terrorist in Hebron, allowed home for Seder dinner; right-wing activists waited outside his home with support signs as his mother told him: 'Welcome home, my child.'
Sgt. Elor Azaria, an IDF soldier charged with manslaughter after shooting dead a neutralized Palestinian terrorist in Hebron, was released from detention on Friday morning.
After 29 days under arrest, Azaria was allowed by the military court to celebrate the Seder, a ritual feast held on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, at home with his family in Ramla.
Azaria's father and another relative arrived at the Nachshonim base near Rosh HaAyin to drive him home, where right wing activists were waiting for him with support signs.
Azaria's arrival home was accompanied by celebrations, with right wing activists carrying him on their shoulders.
After giving her son a long hug, his mother told him: "Welcome, my child. Welcome home."
His father had a message to the Israeli public, "Thank you to the people of Israel and to the court for allowing him to be at home for Passover. We want to be a normal family."
Azaria himself avoided making any comments to reporters who arrived at the family home.
The indictment filed against Azaria on Monday claims that "the soldier took several steps towards the terrorists, aimed at his head and fired a single bullet from short range. This the defendant did in contravention of the rules of engagement and without operational justification." He was also charged with inappropriate behavior.
However, in the same hearing, the military judge criticized the prosecution, and warned that the evidence was weak.
"The level of criminality of the defendant might be lower than what the prosecution attributes him," Judge Lt.-Col. Ronen Shor said.
Azaria enlisted in the army a year and eight months ago and became a combat soldier in the Shimshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade. After successfully finishing a combat medics course, he began serving as a medic in his company.
Azaria has no criminal or disciplinary record. On the contrary, before the incident, he recently received a certificate of excellence for his service.
His father served in the police for 30 years. In recent years, the father has been doing volunteer work, helping soldiers to expunge their criminal record.
Investigators did not find any indication that Azaria supports or has been involved with radical right wing groups. However, in posts he made on Facebook before beginning his army service, he expressed support for the revenge of the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers.
On March 24, two terrorists armed with knives stabbed a soldier, moderately wounding him, at an IDF post near the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron.
The two were shot and neutralized by soldiers from the IDF's Kfir Brigade, and the wounded soldier's condition was later downgraded to light.
A video filmed several minutes later by B'Tselem volunteer Emad abu-Shamsiyah shows one of the terrorists, Abed al Fatah a-Sharif, lying on the ground motionless, when Azaria, who arrived at the scene of the attack several minutes later, aims his weapon at him and shoots him in the head.
An autopsy performed on a-Sharif found he was alive when he was shot, and died as a result of the shot to the head - not from the wounds he sustained before.
