The IDF’s top prosecutor defends the decision to try a soldier who shot a disarmed Palestinian attacker in Hebron earlier this year.
“Wherever there is an alleged severe crime, it is our responsibility to investigate and put on trial,” Colonel Sharon Afek tells a gathering of the Israeli Bar Association in Tel Aviv, “even when passions flare, even when there is public debate, and even when the decisions are unpopular.”
Military Advocate General Col. Sharon Afek. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
His statements appear to be a response to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, who said yesterday that cases such as those involving Elor Azaria, the Hebron shooter, were inevitable, as soldiers cannot stop and seek legal advice from an attorney before they carry out a mission.
“I want to remind you that people are fighting terror on a daily basis, fighting terrorists. They can’t go out to a mission with a lawyer at their side, and therefore sometimes [their] thought process will be correct and sometimes it won’t,” Liberman said.
— Judah Ari Gross contributed
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