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IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot decided to reduce by 4 months the sentence of Elor Azaria, the soldier who shot dead a 21-year-old Palestinian who had minutes earlier stabbed and wounded an IDF soldier.

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This is a segment from The “A Pall to Arms” Edition.

1 comment on “Martial Mercy for Military Manslaughter?

  1. Greg Pollock says:

    I know of no significant disciplinary action against the ground present superiors of Azaria, let alone immediate control off site; but, then, I may well have missed that news. In any case, such discipline of superiors will seem unfair given the video. Azaria gives no indication of planning to kill (so also seems unconcerned over any immediate threat), making his action entirely rouge. The problem is that this case may well have gone to conviction only because of the phone video made by a nearby Palestinian; there is simply no incentive to discipline trigger fingers, as these are young Israelis just entering adulthood, placed at risk in an environment of fear and hate. If the IDF does not link immediate superiors to ground action, the natural immunity parents (and most of the populace) demand will discount such acts as a personal cost of patriotism, overlooked as possibly of us all. The same is true of US police under less constant local threat. But being part of the police is a profession, not conscription; if police are given leeway, surely conscripts will be given more. IDF superiors, however, are to some extent careerist, and one might argue that laxity toward conscripts on these matters might in sum jeopardize soldiers overall. Linking conscript acts to superior responsibility could then be framed as protective of the latter.

    All of this is bargaining with the devil. Some Palestinians will always fight back, no matter how insane their actions seem. US police have feedback with their patrolled population; this is impossible in the occupation. Histories divide across the occupation line, leading each to see the other as callous, insane, brutal. The devil will not accept your bargain, watching you slip into a robotic nationalism which sees no evil.

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