Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman tells his Yisrael Beytenu Knesset faction meeting that he suggests soldier Elor Azaria should refrain from appealing his manslaughter conviction for killing a wounded Palestinian assailant and instead pursue a pardon.
“If I can give Azaria and his family some advice, and this was an excellent soldier with a terrorist, it would be to stick to the law and keep on this path and not to go for an appeal,” he says.
Liberman also dismisses those who say soldiers present at Sunday’s terror attack failed to open fire at first because they were worried about being prosecuted like Azaria.
But he does attack the Palestinian Authority for failing to condemn Sunday’s attack.
Palestinians put up a memorial tent and poster of attacker Fadi Qunbar at his family home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber on January 9, 2017. (AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)
“We watched the whole time after the attack for an official response from the PA in Ramallah — silence. On social media we saw instead a lot of joy, a lot of support for the attacker. We saw candies [being given out] in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza,” he says, using a biblical term for the West Bank.
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 9, 2017
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